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THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLO PEDIA 
Rev. G. B. F. HALLOCK, d.d. 



THE EVANGELISTIC 
CYCLOPEDIA 

A NEW CENTURY HANDBOOK 
OF EVANGELISM 

^■"' BY " ^ 
Reverend G. B. F. HALLOCK, d.d. 

EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITOR" 
Author of *^The Homiletic Year" *^ Christ in the Home^" "Journeying ita 
the Land Where Jesus Lived y^ "The Teaching of Jesus Concern- 
ing the Christian Life,* "Beauty in God^s Word," etc^ 

WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

Rev. JOSEPH A. VANCE, d.d., ll.d, 

PASTOR FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN 




NEW Hi Mr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






COPYRIGHT, 1922 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



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THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA. 11 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

JAN -9 ^23 



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i 



INTRODUCTION 

This Cyclopedia or Handbook on Evangelism, with the ten notable 
evangelistic sermons appended, will be both a rich storehouse of 
material and a great inspiration to many a preacher, and the Church 
owes a great obligation to its gifted and industrious author. 

Gerard Benjamin Fleet Hallock has been pouring forth a great 
wealth of homiletic material during the past twenty years as Assistant 
Editor of "The Expositor," of Cleveland, Ohio, of which magazine 
he is now Editor. Rarely gifted by nature for such a task, his 
position as one of the pastors of the great Brick Presbyterian Church, 
at Rochester, N. Y., has afforded him most valuable opportunities 
for prosecuting his work, and these opportunities he has used with 
abundant industry. 

In a home blessed with rare parental piety, he learned the homiletic 
habit with his mother's earliest interpretations to him of both nature 
and Providence, the fruit of which has been evident in the maturing 
lives of other children also. His work at Princeton University, 
where he took his A.B. in 1882, and at Princeton Seminary, from 
which he graduated in 1885, followed by post-graduate work under 
President McCosh, laid the foundations for a corner in homiletic 
work of rare excellence. In this Handbook on Evangelism he has 
without doubt made his most valuable contribution. 

This work is also most timely. Without depreciating in any way 
the splendid work of our professional evangelists, the church is com- 
ing to see that best of all is pastoral evangelism ; and that becoming 
an evangelistic pastor is within the reach of every pastor who is 
willing to pay the price. It is an art, however, which must be ac- 
quired, as truly as a state of impassioned fervor for men's salvation. 

Most heartily can this work of Dr. Hallock be commended for 
both of these ends. It has not only "feathers for arrows," but it 
has, out of Dr. Hallock's own soul, that which will put a man on 
his knees pleading for souls as John Knox pleaded for Scotland, 
and kindle a hot heart in both preacher and hearer with the fires 
of the Holy Ghost. 

Joseph A. Vance. 

First Presbyterian Church, 
Detroit, Mich. 



CONTENTS 
I 

VAGZ 

Five Hundred Revival Texts and Themes . . , . 13 

II 

Four Hundred and Fifty Evangelistic Illustrations . . 25 

III 

Two Hiuidred Evangelistic Outlines and Sketches . . 125 

IV 

The Need of Evangelism 204 

Urgent Need of Revival 204 

The Revival We Need .204 

Obstacles to Revivals 205 

Do I Want a Revival ? . . 206 

Planning for a Revival 206 

Tact in a Revival 207 

Prayer for Revival 207 

Evangelism and the Bible 208 

Is the Fire Going Out? 210 

The Cross in Modem Life . 211 

Revival Under Nehemiah 212 

V 

Some Methods in Evangelism 214 

A New Every Member Canvass 214 

A Suggestion 216 

Form Prayer Circles 216 

Enlisting Helpers 216 

Methods in Revival Work 217 

Commit 'Em 220 

Revival Methods 220 

Evangelistic Program for Churches 221 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 



tAGB 



Some Methods in Evangelism [Continued] 

Soul Re- Winning 222 

'Win One" Band ....!!!! 224 

Pre-Revival Work 224 

Leading Souls to Decision 225 

Suggestive Form of Membership Application . . . 226 

Care and Culture of Converts 227 

The Worker 228 

The Inquirer 228 

VI 

Lenten Evangelism 230 

Climax at Easter Communion 230 

Revival Essentials 231 

The Lenten Message 232 

The Need 233 

Critical Hours in Religion 233 

Lenten Preparatory Class — Lessons 235 

VII 

Decision Day 243 

Decision Day Is Flood-tide 244 

In the Lenten Season 244 

Making Decision Day a Success 244 

The Waiting Harvest 245 

An Earnest Pastor 245 

The Most Available Souls 246 

Direct and Personal 246 

Bible Decision Days 246 

Sowing and Never Reaping 247 

Two Cautions 248 

How Decision Day May Be a Failure . . . . 248 

The Pastor's Privilege .248 

The Natural Time for Decision 248 

Planning for Decision Day 249 

Little Girrs Prayers .249 

Too "Choicy" in Salvation 250 

The Value of Decision Day 250 

Some Real Decisions for Christ 251 

The Great Day 252 

Teacher's Pledge of Prayer and Personal Work . . 252 

Decision Day a Good Method 253 

Sample Decision Day Cards 253 

Calling Classes on Decision Day 257 



CONTENTS ix 



PAGE 



Decision Day [Continued] 

After Decision Day — What ? 257 

Organize a Communion Class 258 

The Pastor's Place in Results 259 

Our Children Called 259 

A Teacher's Prayer 259 

The First Thing 260 

Two Methods . . .260 

Divine Love 261 

Boys of the Bible 261 

Use of a Boy 262 

Little Ships 262 

. Why a Boy Should Be a Christian 262 

VIII 

Pastoral Evangelism 264 

Having a Revival 264 

Two Pastors 264 

The Cost of a Revival 265 

The Pastor's Relation to the Revival 266 

How to Win Souls 267 

Special Evangelistic Meetings 267 

Fishers of Men 268 

Revival Preaching 270 

Pastor's Communion Class — Lessons .... 272 

After the Revival 278 

IX 

Vocational Evangelism 281 

Real Value of An Evangelist 281 

The Vocational Evangelist 281 

The Preaching that Attracts 283 

Evangelists 284 

X 

Ten Great Revival Sermons 287 

1. One God and One Mediator 287 

By Christmas Evans 

2. Ye Will Not Come to Me 294 

By Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne 

3. Sin Laid On Jesus .300 

By Rev. Charles H. Spurge on 



X CONTENTS 

fAGS 

Ten Great Revival Sermons [Continued] 

4. Faith 304 

By Rev. A. B, Earle, D.D. 

5. The Great Salvation 309 

By Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D. 

6. Repentance and Restitution 316 

By Dwight L. Moody 

7. The Bow in the Clouds 324 

By Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

8. Living Love 329 

By Rev. John Robertson, D.D. 

9. The Hesitating Soul 338 

By Rev. David James Burrell, D.D., LL.D, 

10. Awake! Arise! 343 

By Rev, John McNeill, D.D, 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



THE EVANGELISTIC 
CYCLOPEDIA 

I 

FIVE HUNDRED EVANGELISTIC TEXTS AND THEMES 

Now is the time to stress evangelism. The aim of the whole 
church enterprise is spiritual. This comes first. It is to bring the 
Gospel urgently to the attention of all men everywhere, in the com- 
munity, in the homeland, in the nations across the seas. A post-war 
revival would do more than anything else to restore normal feelings, 
soberness of mind and general well-being. At the same time it 
would serve as a balm of healing for the wounds and sorrows caused 
by the war. A general turning to Christ would greatly promote 
brotherhood and help to settle the political and industrial questions 
that so greatly disturb at present. 

The fact is that intensified evangelistic work is the greatest need 
of the Church today. The minister who neglects to sound the evan- 
gelistic note, who fails to press home with loving zeal the plea of the 
Gospel upon the hearts of his hearers, or who does not seek to bring 
his hearers to a definite decision for Christ, is missing the greatest 
opportunity that has ever come to him. 

How full are the Scriptures of this evangelistic appeal — directly, 
indirectly. There is "The Gospel Now" in II Cor. 6:2. The / 
greatest word in the Bible is God ; the sweetest Love ; the tenderest 
Come; the longest Eternity, and the shortest Now. Yet what mo- 
mentous issues depend upon the proper use of the present moment. 
Now or never ! 

There is "The Appealing Plight of a Friendless Soul,'* as sug- 
gested in John 5 : 7. "Sir, I have no man, when the water is trou- 
bled, to put me into the pool." A helpless man near a remedy! 
Is there anything more sad, in such a case, spiritually, than to have 
no one to help? Anything more distressing? Are Christians 
generally really helping others ? 

Are we all aware of The Daily Things in the Early Church? ^ 
Study Acts 2 : 47. Sinners daily saved. Churches daily multiplied. 
(Acts 16:5). Scriptures daily searched (Acts 16:11). 

Some one may ask, "What is a Christian?" Possibly he has just 

13 



14 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

read Acts 11 : 26, "The disciples were called Christians first at 
Antioch." How clear and helpful such answers as these. He is in 
knowledge a disciple. In character a saint. In influence a light. 
In conflict a soldier. In communion a friend. In progress a pil- 
grim. In relationship a child. In expectation an heir. 

Why decide to become a Christian now ? "While they went away 
to buy, the bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with 
him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut" (Matt. 25: 10). 

Our Warrant for Coming to Christ (Rev. 2 : 17) : "Whosoever 
will." Invited to come. Entreated to come. Commanded to come. 
Assured of salvation if they come. 

That Personal Call (John 11:28): "The Master is come and 
calleth for thee.*' 

The Lord's Joy in Saving Sinners: As the shepherd's over his 
sheep (Luke 5 : 7) : As the buyer's over his treasure (Matt. 13 : 44) : 
As the bridegroom's over his bride (Isa. 62:5): As the reaper's 
over his sheaves (Psalm 126 : 6). 

The kind of revival needed is a revival that begins personally in 
the hearts of pastors and members of the church; a revival of 
thoughtful, honest, prayerful reading of the Bible; a revival that 
will rebuild the broken-down family altars and keep burning thereon 
the fire of daily, devout worship ; a revival that will make all mem- 
bers of the church profoundly solicitous for the salvation of their 
neighbors; a revival that will cause all members of the church to 
labor personally with their neighbors to bring them to Christ; a 
revival that will enable every church member to say from the heart, 
"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go up to the house of 
the Lord" ; a revival that will make it a pleasure to the members to 
live right up to the spirit of the vows they took upon themselves 
when they joined the Church. 

Revival means "life again." Oh, how God longs for it every- 
where ! He has paid the price for it. Let us take it from his out- 
stretched hands. Are we really desiring it? "O Lord, send us a 
revival, and begin with me." Is that our prayer? 

Here are some warning Scripture verses: "And he said. To- 
morrow" (Exodus 8:10). "The fool foldeth his hands together" 
(Eccl. 4:5). "How long are ye slack to go in and possess the 
land?" (Josh. 18 : 3). "It is time to seek the Lord" (Hosea 10: 12). 
''Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth" (Eccl. 12 : 1). 
"Lord, I will follow thee, but—," (Luke 9:61). "Behold, now is 
the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation" (II Cor. 
6:2). 

It is an exceedingly dangerous thing to trifle with the call of 
Christ and the invitations of his Word and Spirit. The beginning 
of the Christian Hfe is not so much an act of the emotions as of the 
•will, and if the will has been trifled with so that it can not act de- 



FIVE HUNDRED TEXTS AND THEMES 15 

cidedly and promptly in cases of emergency, it is like an important 
cog or brake in a piece of machinery that will not act and that 
dooms the whole machinery to ruin. 

Let no one fear to begin the Christian life. You have unlimited 
backing. God never gives a command without giving with it the 
power to obey. A Scotch lord gave his servant, Donald, a little 
farm. He said, "Donald, I am going to give you that farm that you 
may work it for yourself, and spend the rest of your days on your 
own property." Donald replied, "It is nae gude to gie me the farm ; 
I have nae capital to stock it." His lordship looked at him, and 
said, "I think I can manage to stock it also." "Oh, well," said 
Donald, "if it's you and me for it, I think we will manage." 

Begin. Grace will be given. "Kept by the power of God." "As 
thy days, so shall thy strength be." Let such as these be the ap- 
peals. Results are sure to come. 

The following are some additional and appropriate texts and 
themes for evangelistic preaching. 



An Open Confession: "I will de- 
clare what he hath done for my 
soul." Ps. 66:16. 

The Joy of Religion: "Rejoice 
evermore." 1 Thess. 5 : 16. 

The Feast Prepared: "Come for 
all things are now ready." Luke 
14:17. 

Now is the Accepted Time: 2 Cor. 
6:2. Now is God's time. Now is 
the right time. Now is the best time. 
Now is the only time. 

The Heart Asked For: "My son, 
give me thine heart." Prov. 23 : 26. 

Prayer a Good Sign: "Behold he 
prayeth." Acts 9:21. 

A Good Resolution: "I will arise 
and go to my father." Luke 15 : 18. 

Acquaintance With God: "Ac- 
quaint now thyself with him and be 
at peace ; thereby good shall come to 
thee." Job 22:21. 

God's Quiet Work: "Whose heart 
the Lord opened." Acts 16 : 14. 

Winning Others to Christ: Acts 
16:9-15. 

Danger of Delay: Heb. 2: 1-14. 

Halting Souls: 1 Kings 18:20, 
21. 

A Friendless Soul: "Sir, I have 
no man, when the water is troubled, 
to put me into the pool." — John 5 : 7. 
A helpless man near a remedy 1 Is 
there anything more sad? Anything 
more distressing? 

Christ at the Door: "Behold I 
stand at the door and knock," etc. 
Rev. 3 : 20. 



God's First Things: "Seek ye first *^ 
the kingdom of God." Matt 6:3Z, 

Christ Seeking Sinners: Luke 19: 
10. 

The Soul Neglected: "As thy 
servant was busy here and there, he 
was gone." 1 Kings 20:40. 

The Devil's Own: "Ye are of your 
father the devil, and the lusts of 
your father it is your will to 
do. . . ." John 8 : 44. 

The Lord's Own: "Ye are not 
your own; for ye were bought with 
a price: glorify God therefore in 
your body." 1 Cor. 6 : 19-20. 

What Must I Do to Be Saved? 
". . . What must I do to be saved? 
And they said, Believe on the Lord 
Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, and 
thy house." Acts 16:30-31. 

What Must I Do to Be Lost? 
"How shall we escape, if we neglect 
so great salvation? which having at 
the first been spoken through the 
Lord, was confirmed unto us by them 
that heard." Heb. 2:3. 

Christ and the Crowd: "But when 
he saw the multitudes, he was moved 
with compassion for them, because 
they were distressed and scattered, 
as sheep not having a shepherd." 
Matt. 9 : Z6. 

The Crowded-out Christ: "And 
she brought forth her first-born son ; 
and she wrapped him in swaddling 
clothes, and laid him in a manger, 
because there was no room for them 
in the inn." Luke 2 : 7. 



i6 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



What Men Are Thinking About 
God: "What is the Almighty, that 
we should serve him? And what 
profit should we have, if we pray 
unto him?" Luke 2:7. 

What God Thinks of Men: "For 
my people have committed two evils ; 
they have forsaken me, the fountain 
of Hying waters, and hewed them 
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can 
hold no water." Jer. 2 : 13. 

The City That Voted Jesus Out: 
"And behold, all che city came out to 
meet Jesus : and when they saw him, 
they besought him that he would de- 
part from their borders." Matt. 8 : 34. 

The City That Voted Jesus In: 
"And Philip went down to the city 
of Samaria, and proclaimed unto 
them the Christ. And the multitudes 
gave heed with one accord unto the 
things that were spoken by Philip, 
when they heard, and saw the signs 
which he did." Acts 8 : 5-6. 

The Great Acceptance: "But as 
many as received him, to them gave 
he the right to become children of 
God, even to them that believe on his 
name." John 1 : 12. 

The Great Refusal: "But when the 
young man heard the saying, he went 
away sorrowful ; for he was one that 
had great possessions." Matt. 19 : 22. 

The Love of God: "For God so 
loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth on him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." John 3 : 16. 

The Hates of God: "There are 
six things which Jehovah hateth; 
yea, seven which are an abomination 
unto him." Prov. 6:61. 

The First Christians: "The dis- 
ciples were called Christians first in 
Antioch." Acts 11:26. 

The Christians of To-day: "Nev- 
ertheless, when the Son of man 
Cometh, shall he find faith on the 
earth?" Luke 18:8. 

The^ Passover: Ex. 12 : 21-23. 

Christ the Fulfillment of the Law: 
Ex. 20:4. 

Let Me Alone: Ex. 32:7-14. 

The Ribband of Blue: Num. 15: 
38, 39. 

Christ the Fulfillment of the Law: 
Num. 21 :8. 

Lifting Up the Brasen Serpent: 
Num. 21 : 9. 

The Great Arbitration Case: Job 
9:33. 

Relief Afforded by Confession: 
Ps. 32:1-5. 



Our Strength Commanded: Ps. 
68:28. 
Struggling and Seeking: Ps. 34: 

Your Personal Salvation: Ps. 119: 
41. 

The Lord the Liberator: Ps. 146: 
7. 

The Outpoured Spirit: Isa. 32:15. 

Lost, Stolen or Strayed—A Soul: 
Isa. 52:6. 

Sin Laid On Jesus: Isa. 53:6. 

True Repentance: Ezek. 18:26. 

The Alternate Attributes: Nahum 
1:2. 

Three Fires: Matt. 3:11. 

First Things First: Matt. 6:33. 

Christ Points Out to Us the Gate 
of Life: Matt 7:13, 14. 

The Blight of Unbelief: Matt. 13: 
58. 

Compassion for the Crowd: Matt. 
15 : 32. 

Christ's Teaching About Himself: 
Matt. 16:15. 

Jesus Only: Matt. 17:8. 

The Lost Sheep: Matt. 18:12. 

The Divine Christ: Matt. 22:42. 

What Think Ye of Christ? Matt. 
22 : 42. 

A Great Fall: Matt. 26 : 59. 

Chrisfs Way of Dealing With 
Sin: Mark 2:8-11. 

No Room for Christ: Luke 2:7. 

Decision for Christ: Luke 9 : 57- 
62. 

The Rich Fool: Luke 12 : 16-21. ^ 

Come! Come! Come! "The Spirit 
and the bride say. Come." Rev. 22: 
17. 

The Spirit of Adoption: "And be- 
cause ye are sons, God hath sent 
forth his spirit into your hearts, cry- 
ing, Abba Father." Gal. 4 : 6. 

Seeking God: "O God, thou art 
my God, early will I seek thee." 
Ps. 63 : 1. 

Look, and Be Saved: "Look unto 
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth; for I am God, and there 
is none else." Isa. 45 : 22. 

Christ the Friend of Sinners: "A 
friend of publicans and sinners." 
Luke 7:34. 

Bring Them In: "Go out and com- 
pel them to come in." Luke 14:23. 

Knowing and Doing: "To him 
that knoweth to do good and doeth 
it not, it is sin." Jas. 4 : 17. 

Christ First, and Christ Forever: 
"Seek first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness." Matt. 6:ZZ. 
Make this the motto of your life. 



FIVE HUNDRED TEXTS AND THEMES 



17 



1. Christ first in your intellectual 
life. 2. Christ first in your emotional 
life. 3. Christ first in your domestic 
life. 4. Christ first in your social 
life. 5. Christ first in your commer- 
cial life. 6. Christ first in your civic 
life. 7. Christ first in your church 
life. 8. Christ first in your personal 
religious life. Crown him Lord. 
Crown him Lord of all. 

Personal Work: John 1 : 29. 1. Re- 
sponsibility for personal work. 2. 
Advantages of personal work. 3. 
Hindrances to personal work. 4. Op- 
portunities for personal work. 5. 
Equipment for personal work. Will 
you now resolve and act upon Isa. 
6:8? 

All Sinners May Be Saved: John 
6: 37. 1. Saved from sin. 2. Saved 
by Christ. 3. Saved for service. 

The Way to Salvation: Rom. 3: 
23. 1. All are sinners. 2. God loves 
sinners. 3. Christ died for sinners. 
4. All sinners may be saved. 5. All 
sin must be confessed and forsaken. 
6. Sinners are saved by Christ. 7. 
Salvation may be had now. 2 Cor. 
6:2; Heb. 3:15; Prov. 27:1. 

Poverty to Plenty: Isa. 55:1-7. 
This chapter describes the pilgrim- 
age from Poverty to Plenty via Par- 
don. 1. The land of spiritual pov- 
erty. 2. The land of spiritual plenty. 
3. Pardon the way from poverty to 
plenty. 

Become a Christian — Why Not? 
Matt. 4:17. 

How to Help the Unsaved: "Be- 
hold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world." John 
1:29. 

Watchfulness Enforced: Luke 12: 
35. 

The Strait Gate: Luke 13:23, 
24. 

All Things Are Ready: Luke 14: 
17. 

The Prodigal Son: Luke 15:11. 

Only Trust Him: Luke 17:12-14. 

The Supreme Prayer: Luke 18 : 10. 

Christ Seeking Sinners: Luke 19: 
10. 

Jesus Himself: Luke 24:31. 

Natural or Spiritual Birth: John 
1:13. 

Whatsoever He Saith Unto You, 
Do It: John 2:5. 

Ye Must Be Born Again: John 

The Gift of God: John 3:16, 17. 
Faith: John 6:29. 
Abundant Life: John 10:10. 



Vision Before Work: John 21:1- 
14. 

The Christian Name: Acts 11:26. 

Directions to Sinners: Acts 16:30. 

What Is It to Believe On the Lord 
Jesus Christ? Acts 16:31. 

The Unknown God: Acts 17:23. 

Repentance and Restitution: Acts 
17:30. 

Now, Now— Not By-and-hy: Acts 
24:25. 

Obeying the Heavenly Vision: 
Acts 26 : 19. 

What Is It to Be a Christian? 
Acts 26 : 19. 

No Difference: Rom. 3:22. 

Justification: Rom. 3:24. 

Law and Grace: Rom. 5:20, 21. 

Dead to Sin: Rom. 6:3, 4. 

The Wages of Sin: Rom. 6:23. 

Three Fires: 1 Cor. 3:15. 

Called from, Darkness to Lights: 
1 Cor. 14:20. 

The Light of God: 2 Cor, 4:6. 

The Gracious Invitation: "Come, 
for all things are now ready." Luke 
14:17. 

The^ Very Best Time: "Behold, 
now is the accepted time, behold, 
now is the day of salvation. 2 Cor. 
6:2. 

What Is True Penitence? Ps. 
51. 1. Repentance is sorrow. 2. Re- 
pentance is humility. 3. It involves 
confession. 4. It is turning from sin. 
5. It leads to God. 

Incentives to Work: 1. Without 
Christ men are lost. 1 John 5 : 1. 
2. Save a soul from death. James 
5 : 20. 3. Shine as the stars. Dan. 
12:3. Crown of life. Rev. 2:10. 

God's Grace: Ephe. 2:4-7. God is 
a God — 1. Rich in mercy. 2. A God 
of great love. 3. A God of salva- 
tion. 4. A God of grace. 5. A God 
of kindness. 

The House of the Wide-Open 
Door: Isa. 55 : 1-13. 

Begin Now: 2 Cor 6:1-10. 

An Invitation Slighted: "But they 
made hght of it." Matt. 22:5. 

The Two Roads: Matt. 7:13, 14. 

Almost Persuaded: Acts 21:28. 

Come and See: John 1:39. 

Decision for God Demanded: 
"Who is on the Lord's side?" Ex. 
32:26. 

The New Birth: John 3 : 3. 

A New Man: Col. 3 : 10. 

Sons of God by Faith: Gal. 3:24; 
John 1 : 12. 

Two Roads and Two Ends: Matt. 
6:13-27. 



iB 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Three Foundation Facts: 1. Ruin 
in sins. 2. Redemption by blood. 3. 
Regeneration by the Spirit. Rom. 
5:12; Heb. 9:22; John 3:5. 

Sonship: 1. The origin of sonship, 
Gal. 3 : 26. 2. The spirit of sonship, 
Gal. 4:6, 7. 3. The place of son- 
ship, John 7 : 35. 4. The manifesta- 
tion of sonship, Rom. 8 : 19-29. 

The Source of Life: John 5:26. 

1. The life manifested, 1 John 1 : 4. 

2. The life imparted, John 10:10. 

3. The life possessed, John 3 : 36. 4. 
The life exhibited, 2 Cor. 4:10. 
5. The life in fruition, Titus 1 : 2. 

Redemption: Heb. 9: 12. 1. A Re- 
deemer provided, Job. 33 : 24. 2. Re- 
demption by blood, Ephe. 1:7. 3. 
Redemption by power, Ephe. 1 : 13, 
14. 4. Redemption from iniquity, 
Titus 2 : 14. The word means to buy 
back and set free. That is what 
Christ does for us. 

The Source of Power: "But ye 
shall receive power, when the Holy 
Spirit is come upon you." Acts 1 : 8. 

The Self-Complacent Church Mem- 
ber: "What doth it profit, my breth- 
ren, if a man say he hath faith, but 
have not works? can that faith save 
him?" Jas. 2:14. 

Why Decide Now? "And while 
they went away to buy, the bride- 
groom came, and they that were 
ready went in with him to the mar- 
riage feast; and the door was shut." 
Matt. 25 : 10. 

Is It Not Too Late? "Him that 
Cometh to me I will in no wise cast 
out." John 6: 37. 

Can I Overcome Fixed Habits of 
Sin? "Come now, and let us reason 
together," etc. Isa. 1 : 18. 

Ought We to Expect Pentecostsf 
Acts 2 : 22-47. Does Pentecost re- 
peat ? History repeats ; why not sa- 
cred history? 

Obtaining Salvation: Rom. 10:1- 
21. 

The Wonderful: "And his name 
shall be called Wonderful." Isa. 
9:6. Old Testament names are full 
of meaning, and generally express 
some feature of the character, life, 
or service of the persons who bear 
them. There is a Name which is 
above every name, and that one is 
Jesus. But there is another very 
precious name of his, and that is 
Wonderful. He has — 1. A wonderful 
eye to see us. His sympathy. 2. A 
wonderful ear to hear us. His solici- 
tude. 3. A wonderful heart to love 



us. His salvation. 4. A wonderful 
hand to hold us. His strength. 5. 
A wonderful word to cheer us. His 
support. 6. A wonderful spirit to 
guide us. _ His Spirit. 7. A wonder- 
ful home in which to receive us. His 
satisfaction. 

The Seeker: Jesus is— 1. The See- 
ing One, John 1 : 48. 2. The Seek- 
ing One, Luke 19 : 10. 3. The 
Searching One, John 4:19, 29. 4. 
The Saving One, Luke 15 : 4, 7. 

The Great Word Salvation: Rom. 
1 : 16. Salvation is threefold — 1. 
Past, from sin's penalty. 2. Present, 
from sin's power. 3. Future, from 
sin's presence. The first is immedi- 
ate, second by Christ's death. The 
second is continuous, by Christ's life. 
The third is prospective at Christ's 
coming. 

Regeneration: John 3:7. 1. Its 
necessity, John 3:7. 2. Its nature, 
John 3:5. 3. Its agent, John 3:8. 
4. Its instrument 1 Pet. 1 : 23. 5. Its 
means, 1 John 5:1. 4. Its fruits, 1 
John 3:9. 7. Its manifestation, 1 
John 5:1, 2. 

Two Causes of Unfruitfulness: 1. 
"They had no root." Matt. 13:6. 
Christless. 2. "It lacked moisture." 
Luke 8 : 6. Spiritless. 

The Power of Love: 2 Cor. 5: 14. 

1. Drawn by love, Jer. 31 : 3. 2. Sat- 
isfied by love, Sol. Song 2:4. 3. 
Constrained by love, 2 Cor. 5 : 14. 
4. Energized by love, Phil. 1 : 7. 

Emblems of the Holy Spirit: Acts 
2:2. 1. John 3:8, Wind, to awaken. 

2. Ezekiel 37, Breath, to give life. 

3. Ezekiel 47 : 2-13, Water, to cleanse 
and heal. 4. Ps. 23 : 5, 1 John 2 : 20, 
Oil, to anoint and enlighten. 

The Preciousness of Christ: "Unto 
you therefore which believe he is 
precious," 1 Pet. 2:7. To believers 
Christ is precious above all things 
else._ To believers everything p<jr- 
taining to Christ is precious. 1. His 
person. 2. His work. 3. His laws. 

4. His word. 5. His people. 6. His 
fame. 

How to Get Rich: "Ask what I 
shall give thee." 1 Kings 3:1. 1. 
Asking the simplest method. 2. The 
divinely appointed method. 3. The 
only method. 4. The certain method. 
It has ever been the abundantly suc- 
cessful method. 

Reconciled to God: 2 Cor. 5:20. 

Salvation by Works: Gal. 2:21. 

Unnaturalness of Disobedience of 
the Gospel: Gal. 3:1.. 



FIVE HUNDRED TEXTS AND THEMES 



19 



Called: Gal. 4:3. 

Sowing and Reaping: Gal. 6: 7, 8. 

Glorying in the Cross: Gal. 6:14. 

The Lord Jesus Christ: Ephe. 1:2. 

Faith, What Is It? Ephe. 2:8. 

Past Feeling: Ephe. 4:19. 

The Fellowship of His Sufferings: 
Phil. 3:10. 

Faith and a Good Conscience: 1 
Tim. 1 : 19. 

The Weight that Hangs on Jesus: 
2 Tim. 1 : 12. 

The Engineering of Eternity: 2 
Tim. 2:19. 

Salvation: Titus 2:11. 

Danger of Neglecting the Gospel: 
Heb. 2 : 3. 

To the Uttermost: Heb. 2:8. 

The Gospel of the Incarnation: 
Heb. 2:14. 

A Friend at Court: Heb. 4: 14. ^ 

The Power of an Endless Life: 
Heb. 7:16. 

To the Uttermost: Heb. 7:24. 

Faith in God: Heb. 11:1. 

Your Personal Salvation: 1 Pet 
1:9-12. 

The Transfiguration: 1 Pet. 2:21. 

Coming, Always Coming: 1 Pet. 
2:4. 

Imitation of Christ: 1 Pet. 2:21. 

God's Love: 1 John 4:1-4. 

The Victory of Faith: 1 John 5:4, 

Types of Churches: Rev. 2:11. 

Done Suddenly: 2 Chron. 33:26. 

An Invitation Slighted: "But they 
made light of it." Matt. 22 : 5. 

Seeking the Lord Our Immediate 
Duty: "It is time to seek the Lord." 
Hoseal0:12. 

When to Believe: "Choose ye this 
dav whom ye will serve." Josh. 24: 
IS.' 

The Spirit of Adoption: "And be- 
cause ye are sons, God hath sent 
forth his spirit into your hearts, cry- 
ing Abba Father." Gal. 4 : 6. 

Following God: "Be ye therefore 
followers of God as dear children." 
Eph. 5 : 1. 

Look, and Be Saved: "Look unto 
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth; for I am God, and there 
is none else." Isa. 45 : 22. 

The Open Doors: John 10:9. The 
open door to the palace of grace is 
Jesus. Christ is the door. This door 
is — 1. The door of salvation. There- 
fore it is near. 2. The door of 
safety. Therefore it shuts in. 3. 
The door of privilege. Therefore it 
is open. 4. The door of opportunity. 



But it shuts up. 5. The door of 
separation. So it shuts out. 

What is a Christian: 1. God's child 
of affection. "Now are ye the sons 
of^ God." 1 John 3:1, 2. 2. God's 
friend of communion. "I have called 
you friends." John 15 : 15. 3. God's 
treasure of possession. "Chosen to 
be special people." Deut. 7:6. 4. 
God's property for use. "Ye are not 
your own." 1 Cor. 6 : 19. 

The Sleeper Aroused: "What 
meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise and 
call upon thy God." Jonah 1 : 6. 

Christ Knocking at the Heart: 
Rev. 3 : 30. 

The Day of Salvation: "Behold 
now is the accepted time ; behold now 
is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6 : 2. 

The Soul Neglected: "As thy ser- 
vant was busy here and there, he was 
gone." 1 Kings 20 : 40. 

How God Forgives Sinners: 1. 
Frankly, Luke 7 : 42. 2. Freely, Eph. 
4:32. 3. Fully, Col. 2:13; Heb. 10: 

Christ Seeking Sinners: Luke 19: 
10. 

The Great Deliverance: Gal. 1:3, 
4. 1. The Giver, our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 2. The Gift— himself. 3. The 
object — for our sins. 4. The end — 
deliverance from the world. 

The Duty of Confessing Christ: 
"Whosoever therefore shall confess 
me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in 
heaven." Matt. 10 : 32. 

Testing by Tasting: "O taste and 
see that the Lord is good ; blessed is 
the man that trusteth in him." Ps. 
34:8. 

Out of Egypt into Canaan: Deut. 
6:23. 

A Closed Door and a Waiting Sav- 
iour: Rev. 3:20. 

Being God's and Serving God: Acts 
7:23. 

Soul Prosperity: 3 John 1 : 2. 

The Wrong Standard of Measure: 
2 Cor. 10:12-18. 

Choosing God: Josh. 24:15-26. 

Unquestioning Obedience: Luke 5: 
o. 

Things that Keep Us from God: 
Prov. 6 : 16-19. 

Duty of Self-Testing: 2 Cor. 13 : 5. 

The Constraining Love of Christ: 
2 Cor. 5 : 14. 

Growth in Grace: 2 Pet. 3: 18. 

Our Need and Our Supply: Phil. 
4:19. 

Lovest Thou Me? John 21 : 16. 



20 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



According to Your Faith: Matt 
9:9. 

The Invitation of Moses to Ho* 
bah: Num. 10:29. 

God's Favor to the Righteous: Ps. 
5:12. 

Rejoicing in God's Salvation: Ps. 
9:14. 

God the Portion of His People: 
Ps. 16:5. 

The Christian Made Glad: Ps. 
92:4. 

Early Piety: Prov. 8: 17. 

Christ a Friend: Song of Sol. 5 : 16. 

Christ a Foundation: Isa. 28: 16. 

The Journey to Heaven: Isa. 35 : 
10. 

The Sinner's Ruin and Recovery: 
Isa. 52:3. 

Christ Mighty to Save: Isa. 63:1. 

Seeking the Lord an Immediate 
Duty:^ Rosea 10: 12. 

Invitation to Backsliders: Hosea 
14:1-4. 

Life Found by Seeking the Lord: 
Amos 5:4. 

The Gospel Fountain: Zech. 13 : 1. 

Matthew Called to be a Disciple: 
Matt. 9:9. 

Sin a Disease: Matt. 9:12. 

Christ the Physician of Souls: 
Matt. 9 : 12. 

Blessedness of Not Being Of- 
fended at Christ: Matt. 11:6. 

Christ the Pearl of Great Price: 
Matt. 13 : 45, 46. 

The Wedding Garment: Matt. 22: 
11-13. 

Deliverance from Captivity: Luke 
4:18. 

The Gospel Feast: Luke 14:16-20. 

Christ Receiving Sinners: Luke 
15:2. 

Joy of Angels Over a Repentant 
Sinner: Luke 15 : 10. 

Christ the Saviour of the World: 
John 4 : 42. 

Christ's Gracious Reception of 
Sinners: John 6 : Z7. 

Christ the Light of the World: 
John 8 : 12. 

Christ's Calling Mary: John 11: 
28, 29. 

The Will of Christ: John 17:24. 

The Word of Salvation: Acts 13: 
26. 

The Gospel: Rom. 1 : 16, 

The Nearness of Salvation: Rom. 
13:11. 

Christian Steadfastness: 1 Cor. 15: 
58. 

The Commencement and Progress 
of Religion: Phil. 1 : 6. 



Experimental Religion: Col. 1-6. 

The Fulness of Christ: Col. 1 : 19. 

A Good Hope through Grace: 2 
Thess. 2 : 16. 

Eternal Life: 1 Tim. 6:12. 

The Christian's Life of Faith: 
Heb. 10:38. 

Save a Soul from Death: James 
5 : 20. 

Christian Deportment: 1 Peter 2: 
12. 

The Example of Christ: 1 Peter 
2:21. 

The Sacrifice of Christ: 1 Peter 
2:24. 

Early Piety the Cause of Joy: 2 
John 4. 

Enjoyment of Divine Goodness: 
Ps. 34:8. 

Delighting in God: Ps. 37:4. 

Christ the Restorer: Ps. 69:4. 

Gratitude for Divine Mercies: Ps. 
68:19. 

Communion with God: Ps. 73:28. 

Numbering Our Days: Ps. 90:12. 

Prayer for Divine Meroy: Ps. 90: 
14. 

The Rest of the Soul: Ps. 116:7. 

Sin Destructive: Prov. 11:19. 

Light in Darkness: Isa. 50: 10. 

The Gospel Neglected: Isa. 53 : 1. 

Seasonable Seeking after God: Isa. 
55 : 6. 

Divine Goodness Satisfying: Jer. 
31 : 14. I 

Danger of Apathy: Amos 6:1. J 

Christians Compared to Jewels: '^ 
Mai. 3:17. ^ 

Participation in Christ's Sacrifice: 
John 6:54. 

Christ a Shepherd: John 10:11. 

Christ the Way to Heaven: John 
14:6. 

The Enriching Saviour: Rom. 10: 
12. 

The Only Foundation: 1 Cor. 
3:11. 

Christ Our Passover: 1 Cor. 5 : 7. 

Christ a Rock: 1 Cor. 10:4. 

The Love of Christ: 2 Cor. 5:14. i 

The Day of Salvation: 2 Cor. 6:2. 

The Gift of Christ: Gal. 1:4. 

The Greatness of the Saviour's 
Love: Eph. 2:4. 

Riches of Divine Mercy: Eph. 2:4. 

Living to Christ: Phil. 1:21. 

The Christian Warfare: 1 Tim. 
1:18. 

Salvation with Eternal Glory: 2 
Tim. 2:10. 

Neglect of the Great Salvation: 
Heb. 2 : 3. 

The Christian's Rest: Heb. 4:9. 



FIVE HUNDRED TEXTS AND THEMES 



21 



The Believer's Inheritance: 1 Pet. 
1 : 3, 4. 

Precious Faith: 2 Pet. 1: 1. 

Christ the Saviour of the World: 
1 John 4 : 14. 

Christian Zeal: Rev. 3:19. 

The Gospel Trumpet: Isa. 27:3. 

Look, and Be Saved: Isa. 45:22. 

Christ the Sun of Righteousness: 
Mai. 4:2. 

Blessedness of the Poor in Spirit: 
Matt. 5:3. 

Hungering and Thirsting after 
Righteousness: Matt. 5:6. 

Christ the Friend of Sinners: 
Luke 7 : 34. 

Eternal Life: John 3 : 36. 

The Persecutor Converted: Acts 
9:11. 

Pardon and Justification: Acts 13: 
38 39. 

The Divine Supply: Phil. 4:19. 

The Faithful Saying: 1 Tim. 1 : 15. 

Christ a Testator: Heb. 9:16. 

Christian Warfare: Gen. 49:19. 

Decision for God: Ex. 22 : 26. 

The Ark a Type of Christ: 2 Sam. 
6: 11. 

The Soul Neglected: 1 Kings 20: 
40. 

Seeking God: Ps. 63 : 1. 

Light in Darkness: Ps. 112:4. 

Mocking at Sin: Prov. 14:9. 

Object of a Christian's Love: Song 

The Balm of Gilead: Jer. 8:22. 

The Swelling of Jordan: Jer. 12: 5. 

The Axe Laid to the Root: Matt. 
3:10. 

Christ's Invitation: Matt. 11:28. 

The Chief Corner-Stone: Matt. 21: 
42-46. 

The Heavenly Company: Luke 13: 
29. 

Temptation: Luke 22:40. 

The Great Question: John 9:35. 

Christ the Good Shepherd: John 
10:14. 

Estrangement from God: Rom. 
1:28. 

The Atonement: Rom. 3:25. 

Freedom from Condemnation: 
Rom. 8:1. 

The Dignity of Adoption: Rom. 
8:14. 

Living Epistles: 2 Cor. 3:2. 

The Day of Salvation: 2 Cor. 6:2. 

Zeal for the Gospel: Gal. 4: 18. 

The Truth in Jesus: Eph. 4:21. 

Following God: Eph. 5: 1. 

Abundant Grace: Eph. 1:8-10. 

The Sword of the Spirit: Eph. 
6:17. 



Constancy in Prayer: Eph. 6: 18. 

Reconciliation: Col. 1:21, 22. 

Christ All in All: Col. 3: 11. 

Confidence in Christ: 2 Tim. 1: 12. 

Salvation by Grace: Tit. 3:5. 

Honest Conversation: 1 Pet. 2:12. 

Common Salvation: Jude 3. 

Christ Knocking at the Heart: 
Rev. 3 : 20. 

Dwelling in Love: 1 John 4:16. 

The Soul's Cry for God: Ps. 84:2. 

Faith: Heb. 11:1. 

Faith Essential: Heb. 11:6. 

Faith and Works: Jas. 2: 14-17. 

The Spirit Poured Out: Acts 2 
17. 

The Important Enquiry: Job 13 
23. 

A Remembrance of Gospel Truth 
2 Tim. 2:8. 

Superabounding Grace: Rom. 5 : 20, 

The Robe of Charity: 1 Pet. 4:8 

The Important Question: Ex. 32: 

Parental Solicitude: Judges 13:12 

God Ready to Pardon: Neh. 9: 17. 

Woman of Samaria: John 4:7. 

The Penitent Thief: Luke 23 
42-3. 

The Philippian Jailer: Acts 16 
31-2. 

Abundant Peace: Dan. 6:25. 

The Saving Look: Isa. 45:22. 

Christ the Only Saviour: Acts 4: 
12. 

Christian Stability: 1 Cor. 15:58. 

How to Overcome Evil: Rom. 12: 
21. 

Keeping God's Word: Ps. 119:17. 

Loveliness of Christ: Song of 
Solomon 5 : 16. 

The World's Saviour: 1 John 4: 
14. 

The Opened Ear: Job 36 : 10. 

The Opened Eyes: Acts 26:17, 
18. 

The Understanding Opened: Luke 
24:45. 

The Heart Opened: Acts 16:24. 

''Almost": Acts 26:28. 

"Altogether": Acts 26:29. 

The Healing Touch: Luke 8:45. 

Grand Object of Christ's Mission: 
Luke 9: 56. 

Without God: Eph. 2:12. 

A Christless Condition: Eph. 2: 
12. 

Hopelessness: Eph. 2:12. 

Christ Our Life: Gal. 2:20. 

The Disciples in the Cloud: Luke 
9:34. 

The Object of Our Faith and 
Hope: 1 Pet. 1:21. 



22 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



God's Unwillingness that Men 
Should Perish: 2 Pet. 3:9. 

The Noble Resolve: Ps. 119:16. 

Christian Love: 1 Pet. 1:22. 

God Our Helper: Ps. 54:4. 

Strengthened with All Might: Col. 
1:2. 

Law and Grace — Moses and 
Christ: John 1 : 17. 

The Effectual Fervent Prayer: 
Jas. 5 : 16. 

Salvation by Grace: Eph. 2:8, 9. 

The Way of Salvation: Acts 16: 17. 

A Revival Desired: Ps. 85 : 6. 

Transgressions Blotted Out: Isa. 
43 : 25. 

The Eleventh Commandment: John 
13 : 14. 

Walking Wisely: Eph. 5: 15. 

Sowing and Reaping: 2 Cor. 9:6. 

Sinful Infatuation: Zech. 7:11. 

The Fulness of Christ: Eph. 4: 
13. 

Offended in Christ: "Blessed is he 
whosoever shall not be offended in 
me." Matt. 11:6. 

The Wisest Work in the World: 
**He that winneth souls is wise." 
Prov. 11:30. 

Conversion: Its Necessity, Means 
and Tests : Acts 14 : 30-34. 

A Birthright Bargained Away: 
"Looking diligently lest any man fail 
of the grace of God." Heb. 12 : 15- 
17. 

Tests of Discipleship : "Lovest 
thou me?" John 21:27. ^ 

The Lord's Joy in Saving Sinners: 
As the shepherd's over his sheep, 
Luke 15 : 7. As the buyer's in his 
treasure, Matt. 13 : 44. As the bride- 
groom's over his bride, Isa. 62 : 5. 
As the reaper's over his sheaves, Ps. 
126:6. 

Persuading Men: 2 Cor. 5:11. 
Almost persuaded, Acts 21 : 28. 
Never persuaded, Luke 16 : 31. I am 
persuaded, Rom. 8 : 38, 39. 

An Open Confession: "I will de- 
clare what he hath done for my soul." 
Ps. 66 : 16. 

An Invitation Slighted: "But they 
made light of it." Matt. 22:5. 

Coming to Christ: "Him that com- 
eth to me I will in no wise cast out." 
John 6:Z7. 

The Common Salvation: "Beloved, 
when I give all diligence to write 
unto you of the common salvation," 
etc. Jude 3. 

Seeking God: "O God, thou art my 
God, early will I seek thee." Ps. 
63:1. 



Look, and Be Saved: "Look unto 
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth; for I am God, and there 
is none else." Isa. 45 : 22. 

Now Is the Accepted Time: 2 Cor. 
6 : 2. Now is God's time. Now is 
a good time. Now is the right time. 
Now is the best time. Now is the 
only time. 

The Supreme Question: "What 
shall I do to be saved?" Acts 16: 30. 

The Self-Dooming of Neglect: 
"How shall we escape if we neglect 
so great salvation ?" Heb. 2 : 3. 

Straighten Out the New Year: 
"God commanded all men everywhere 
to repent." Acts 17:30. 

Steps to Christ: "I will arise and 
go to my father." Luke 15 : 18. 

Come! Come! Come! "The Spirit 
and the bride say, Come." Rev. 
22:17. 

Making Excuse: "And they all, 
with one consent, began to make ex- 
cuse." Luke 14 : 1. 

The Supreme Question: "What 
shall I do to be saved ?" Acts 16 : 30. 

Conditions of Discipleship: Luke 
9 : 23. Take up thy cross daily. Fol- 
low me. 

Gospel Invitations: "I stand and 
knock." Rev. 3 : 20. "I came to call 
sinners." Luke 5 : Z2. "Come unto 
me and rest." Matt. 2 : 28. "Come 
unto me and drink." John 7 : Z7. 
"Come, all things are ready." Luke 
14:17. "No wise cast out." John 
6:Z7-A7. "Whosoever will." Rev. 
22:17. 

A Good Resolution: "I will arise 
and go to my father." Luke 15 : 18. 

A New Man in a New Year: "If 
any man be in Christ he is a new 
creature, old things are passed away, 
behold, all things are become new." 
2 Cor. 5:17. 

Our Warrant for Coming to 
Christ: Rev. 22 : 17. "Whosoever 
will." Invited to come. Entreated 
to come. Commanded to come. As- 
sured of salvation if we come. 

You Have Sinned: Rom. 3:10; 
Gal. 3:10; Jas. 2:10; 1 John 1:8; 
Rom. 3:22, 23. 

God Loves You: John 3:16; 1 
John 3:16; 1 John 4:10; 1 John 
3:1; Rom. 8 : 35. 

You Can Be Saved: Luke 2:10; 
1 Tim. 1:15; Luke 19:10; Prov. 
28:13; John 6:Z7; Isa. 1:18; Heb. 
7:25; Rev. 22:17. 

Obtaining Salvation: Rom. 10:1- 
21. 



FIVE HUNDRED TEXTS AND THEMES 



23 



Christ's Call for You: "The Mas- 
ter is come and calleth for thee." 
John 11:28. 

The New Birth: It brings new 
things — a new creation, 2 Cor. 5 : 17 
— a new life, 1 John 5 : 12 — a new 
peace, Rom 5 : 1 — a new love, 1 John 
3 : 14— a new witness within, 1 John 
5 : 10 — a new outlook, Rom. 8:1. 

God Desires the Human Heart: 
**My son, give me thine heart." 
Prov. 23:26. These words show, 

1. That the human heart is not by- 
nature in God's possession. 2. That 
God desires possession of the human 
heart. "Give me." 3. That God de- 
sires a wilHng possession of the hu- 
man heart. "Give." No compulsion. 
Our dignity recognized. Our consent 
necessary. 

Inconsiderateness: "My people doth 
not consider." Isa. 1:3. 1. The lan- 
guage of reproach. 2. The language 
of regret. Consider! 

Christ Knocking at the Door of the 
Heart: "Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock," etc. Rev. 3 : 20. Christ 
is the speaker. His address to all 
men — "if any man." 1. How does 
Christ knock at the door? By truth, 
by the Holy Spirit, by providences, 
etc. 2. The conditions upon which 
Christ will enter the heart. Must 
hear his voice. Must open the door. 
3. The advantage of entertaining the 
Royal Guest. Is a great honor. He 
will fit the heart for himself. He 
will sup with us. We shall sup with 
him. 

Lot's Wife: "Remember Lot's 
wife." Luke 17:32. 1. Her privi- 
leges. 2. Her perverseness. 3. Her 
punishment. 

The Healing Virtue of Christ: 
"And the whole multitude sought to 
touch him: for there went vir^^ae out 
of him, and healed them all." Luke 
6:19. 1. There is sickness in man. 

2. There is health in Jesus. 3. 
Contact with Jesus heals. 4. This 
health and this contact are free to us. 

The Opened Fountain: "In that 
day there shall be a fountain opened 
in the house of David," etc. Zech. 
13:1. 1. The certainty of this pro- 
vision. "There shall be a fountain." 
2. The perpetuity of the provision. 
"Fountain opened." A Perpetual 
fountain always running, always 
flowing. 3. The freeness of this pro- 
vision. It is a fountain "opened." 
Not a fountain dug, nor deserved, 
but a fountain opened by God him- 



self for men's need. 4. The suffi- 
ciency of this provision. It is for 
"sin and uncleannness." Compre- 
hensive provision coextensive with 
the wants, the misery, the guilt of 
man. Pardon. Salvation. 

No Longer Blind: "One thing I 
know, that whereas I was blind, now 
I see." John 9:25. 1. Humble con- 
fession. "I was blind." With regard 
to God. With regard to himself. 
With regard to the preciousness of 
Christ. 2. Humble acknowledgment. 
"I see." What I see. The effect it 
produces. 3. Holy confidence. "I 
know." "Spirit of God beareth wit- 
ness," etc. 

Plenty of Room: "Yet there is 
room." Luke 14:22. 1. Where? 
At the table ; in the house ; in the 
kitchen of heaven. 2. For whom? 
For sincere, hungry, penitent souls. 
3. How long yet? "Yet there is 
room" — ^that is now. 

An Important Question: "What 
shall I do then with Jesus?" Matt. 
27 : 22. 1. An imperative question. 
Something must be done. 2. A 
troublesome question. ^ Pirate's con- 
flict between conviction and duty. 
3. A personal question. "What shall 
I do?" 4. The New Testament an- 
swer to the question. Believe in him. 
Receive him. Abide in him. 

God the Habitation of Souls: "Be 
thou my strong habitation, whereunto 
I may continually resort." Ps. 71 : 3. 
1. The soul needs a habitation. 
Needs a home for protection, for 
comfort, for settledness. 2. God is 
just the habitation the soul wants. 
Affords security, comfort, and per- 
manent residence. God is an accessi- 
ble habitation — a secure habitation — 
a blessed habitation — an enduring 
habitation. 

Added to the Church: "And the 
Lord added to the Church daily such 
as should be saved." Acts 2 : 47. 1. 
Additions to the Church are the re- 
sults of Divine power. "The Lord 
added." 2. The Lord added to the 
Church — not to a union of persons 
for secular or different purposes. 
To the Church — the spiritual fellow- 
ship of human hearts. 3. The Lord 
added to the Church such as should 
be saved. The Church consists of 
men and women who are saved. 

Acquaintance With God: "Ac- 
quaint now thyself with him, and be 
at peace; thereby good shall come 
unto thee." Job 22:21. 1. What is 



24 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



implied in this acquaintance. Knowl- 
edge. Love. Enjoyment. Inter- 
course. 2. The means for attaining 
it. The Word. The Spirit's influ- 
ence. Prayer. Faith in Christ. 3. 
The time to commence it, "Now." 
It is God's time. It is the only cer- 
tain time. 4. The blessed result of 
it. Peace. Good. 

The Balm of Gilead: Jer. 8:22. 

The Great Question: John 9:35. 

Estrangement from God: Rom. 
1:28. 

The Day of Salvation: 2 Cor. 6:2. 

Salvation by Grace: Tit. 3:5. 

The Evangelistic Outlook. 

The Evangelistic Spirit. 

The Gospel in a Sentence: *Tf any 
man thirst let him come unto me and 
drink." John 7:37. 

The Gospel Trumpet: Isa. 27 : 3. 

Look, and Be Saved: Isa. 45 : 22. 

Christ the Sun of Righteousness: 
Mai. 4:2.^ 

Hungering and Thirsting After 
Righteousness: Matt. 5 : 6. 

Christ the Friend of Sinners: 
Luke 7 : 34. 

Eternal Life: John 3: 36. 

The Glorious Gospel: 1 Tim. 1:11. 

The Penitent's Confidence: Ps. 51: 
13-19. 

Responsibility Neglected: Ezek. 33: 
6. 

The Privileges of the Justified: 
Rom. 5:1, 2. 1. Peace with God. 
The human heart uncontrolled by 
Christ is at enmity with God. There 
can be no peace where there is rebel- 
lion. God's proposal is peace on con- 
dition of surrender. 2. Access to 
God. We have access to his ear 
through prayer; access to his mind 
through Revelation; access to his 
heart ^ through knowing Christ. 3. 
Standing in his grace. Security sur- 
rounds us as long as we live within 
the circle of his grace. 4. Hope of 
the glory of God. Vs. 2. 

Seeking the Lord Our Immediate 
Duty: "It is time to seek the Lord." 
Hosea 10:12. 

When to Believe: "Choose you 
this day whom ye will serve." Josh. 
24:15. 

The Need of the Holy Spirit: 
John 16:1-7. 1. Evil is present and 
powerful in the world and the Holy 
Spirit is needed to help you over- 
come evil within you and evil with- 
out you. The Holy Spirit will drive 
out all that is unholy in thought and 
deed. 2. The absence of Christ. 



Christ promises that the Holy Spirit 
will come and take his place ; he will 
be to the disciples forever every- 
thing that Christ was to them for 
three years. The Holy Spirit is to 
be the abiding helper of every dis- 
ciple of Christ, the other "Com- 
forter." 

The Invitation of Moses to Ho- 
bab: Num. 10:29. 

The Surrender of the Heart: 
Prov. 23:6. 

Accessions to the Church: Zech. 
8:23. 

The Wedding Garment: Matt. 22: 
11-13. 

Christian Discipleship : John 9 : 27. 

Delighting in God: Ps. 37:4. 

Christ the Way to Heaven: John 
14:6. 

The Enriching Saviour: Rom. 10 
12. 

Decision for God: Exodus 32 
26. 

The Soul Neglected: 1 Kings 20 
40. 

The Penitent's Conviction of Sin 
"My sin is ever before me." Ps. 
51:3. 

Seeking God: Ps. 63: 1. 

Mocking at Sin: "Fools make a 
mock at sin." Prov. 14 : 9. 

A New Creature: "If any man be 
in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 
Cor. 5:17. 1. His judgments are 
new. 2. His purposes are new. 3. 
His desires are new. 4. His con- 
versation is new. 5. His actions are 
new. 

The Lost Sheep: "What man of 
you, having one hundred sheep, if 
he lose one of them," etc. Luke 
5 : 4-6. 1. Humanity as lost. 2. 
Humanity as sought. 3. Humanity as 
found. 

Christian Discipleship: "Will ye 
also be his disciples?" John 9:27. 
1. The condition of Christian disci- 
pleship. 2. The duties of disciple- 
ship. 3. The privilege of discipleship. 
4. The evidence of discipleship, 

Jonah Asleep: "What meanest 
thou, O sleeper?" Jonah 1:6. This 
sleep was sinful. It was at the wrong 
time and in the wrong place. "Let 
us not sleep as do others." 

A Right Heart: "Is thine heart 
right?" 1 Kings 10:15. 1. A heart 
that is right is a trustful heart. 2. 
A heart that is right is a consecrated 
heart. 3. A heart that is right is a 
pure heart. 4. A heart that is right 
is a heart at rest. 



n 

FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY EVANGELISTIC 
ILLUSTRATIONS 

(With Numerous Cross References) 

The importance of illustration in preaching, and especially in 
evangelistic preaching, is beyond expression. Illustrations are 
needed to explain, to prove, to adorn and to render impressive. In 
many cases they are the very best means of conveying religious truth 
and often, to the popular mind, the only way of explaining it. It 
has been said that eloquence is the art of speaking in such a way as 
is best adapted to attract, to instruct, to convince, and to persuade. 
In preaching to children and young people, and to the great mass 
of adults as well, the use of illustration is simply indispensable if 
one would instruct or impress them, while good illustrations are 
always acceptable and useful to hearers also of brightest talent and 
culture. The example of our Lord decides the whole question. He 
was preeminent in the use of metaphors, similes, parables, illus- 
trative examples and in other such means of lighting up and enforc- 
ing truth. 



1. Acceptance, of Christ. A 
teacher in a mission school in 
Africa had just explained the para- 
ble of the king who invited people 
to his feast. One of the large boys 
said he wanted to follow Jesus, and 
the little boy said the same. "H^ve 
you felt for some time that Jesus 
has been calling you?" asked the 
teacher. "Oh, no; it is only to-day; 
but I listened right off when he 
called," was the sincere answer. 

That is the time to answer, when 
you hear the call. Do it promptly. 
Do it at once. Accept the first 
offer.—H. 

2. Acknowledgment, of God. 
See God, Acknowledged. 

3. Asking. If God announced 
that he would give gold to every 
one that should ask him, how many 
would remain poor? Would not 
the gates of heaven be thronged 
perpetually with seekers for the 
dazzling gift? If crowns and 
honors and earthly prizes were 



promised for the asking, who would 
not ask for them? 

Now all the glorious things of 
divine love and grace are to be had, 
simply for the asking. Does it 
seem possible that any one should 
fail then to ask? 

"Bubbles we buy with a whole 
soul's tasking; 
'Tis heaven alone that is given 
away, 
'Tis only God may be had for the 
asking." 

4. Assurance, Christian. In 

speaking to two ladies at an after- 
meeting Rev. W. G. Puddifoot illus- 
trated regeneration as follows: 
"Now listen, you did not know you 
were born the first time for some 
months after, did you?" "Why, 
no," one said with a smile. "Well," 
I said, "it is the same with me. 
I must have been a year and a half 
old when I became conscious that 
I was born. It was in this way. 
I was seated on the floor when I 



25 



26 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



noticed some little pink things that 
wriggled in a most fascinating way. 
I made a sudden plunge at them, 
and at once conveyed them to my 
mouth, and some little sharp teeth 
closed upon them, and with a loud 
cry I realized they were part of 
myself and that I was born." "You 
have a good memory, sir." "Yes, 
because I know things that no one 
could have told me. You see that 
if it takes so long to find that 
we were born the first time, it is 
no wonder we cannot know of our 
second birth, of being 'born of the 
Spirit.' It puzzled Nicodemus, and 
he was a ruler of the Jews. Indeed 
there is a great mystery about it, 
for 'the wind bloweth where it list- 
eth and thou hearest the sound 
thereof but canst not tell whence 
it Cometh or whither it goeth; so, 
is every man that is born of the 
spirit' " 

"But," said the woman, "how are 
we to know?" "I will tell you. 
When you find that you desire that 
which is good, and that you are 
drawn toward godly people ; that you 
dislike that which is bad; that you 
begin to feel kindly toward those 
who have ill used you; and better 
still, if you desire to do them good, 
then you may be sure you are born 
again, or born of the Spirit, for 
these are the fruits of the Spirit." 

"Will you pray for us, sir?" "I 
will," and after a short prayer I left 
them, smiling through their tears. 

5. Assurance, Christian. Assur- 
ance springs up in the heart in con- 
sequence of several elements meet- 
ing together. The first is a strong 
faith in the Word and promise of 
God. The second is the conscious- 
ness of the possession of that state 
of the mind or character to which 
the promises are annexed. It is 
not simply faith, though faith is at 
the foundation. The fact is the 
Bible is full of promises, and they 
are addressed not to named indi- 
viduals but to characters. Whoso- 
ever loveth. Whosoever believeth. 
Whosoever obeyeth. Whosoever 
trusteth. Whosoever hopeth. Well, 
if I hope and trust and obey and 
love, the consciousness of possess- 
ing these qualities gives me the 
assurance of the promises which 
God has annexed to these graces. 
Then, too, there is that mysterious 



and royal gift, the witness together 
with our spirit of the Holy Spirit. 
These three evidences taken to- 
gether give us reliable testimony 
upon which to trust that we have 
passed from death into life, from 
old things into new. 

We cannot put too much confi- 
dence in what Jesus says. He says, 
"Him that cometh unto me I will 
in no wise cast out." I come to 
him. I have a right to believe that 
he has not cast me out. He says, 
"Ask, and it shall be given you; 
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and 
it shall be opened unto you; for 
every one that asketh receiveth; 
and he that seeketh findeth; and to 
him that knocketh it shall be 
opened." I ask; I seek; I knock, 
in my desire to be saved. I have 
a right to believe that he has an- 
swered, has been found of me, has 
opened unto me. — H. 

6. Assurance, Christian. Every 

truly penitent believer is accepted 
of God; but not every one is con- 
scious of the fact. Yet to have such 
a consciousness is highly desirable. 
Those to whom sin and salvation 
are not vivid realities but only 
vague terms having little personal 
application, will scarcely desire to 
seek after a full assurance of hope. 
But those who are awake to these 
great realities cannot be content 
with less than a confident persua- 
sion of their acceptance with God. 
It is desirable to know whether the 
new life has begun in us or not. 
And we may know. The Apostle 
John stood very near to Jesus, and 
he laid much ernphasis on the evi- 
dences of salvation. Naming some 
of these he showed the importance 
of our being consciously able to 
bear the tests, saying, "Hereby shall 
we know that we are of the truth, 
and shall assure our heart before 
him." "If our hearts condemn us 
not, then have we confidence to- 
ward God." It certainly is very 
desirable, as well as most delight- 
ful, to have this confidence. There 
are many valuable results in our 
lives that flow from possessing it. 

That one may know whether he 
is saved or not is clearly taught 
by Jesus. He wished all his fol- 
lowers to advance far beyond the 
mere hope that they have a hope. 
On the other hand, our acceptance 



I 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 27 



with God does not depend upon our 
feelings. We may be glad of that, 
for our feelings are very fluctuating 
things to ground our expectation of 
salvation upon. We ground our 
hope of salvation upon God's fin- 
ished work for us in redemption, 
and upon his spoken word of prom- 
ise to accept us and save us when 
we turn to him in Christ. But there 
are available tests, evidences of sal- 
vation which, if used, may help us 
to a knowledge as to whether we 
are Christians or not. 

The one in whom the new life 
has begun has some consciousness 
of belief in Jesus and of trusting 
in him for salvation. This does 
not imply that he has a clearly de- 
fined grasp of the doctrinal ques- 
tions concerning Christ's nature; 
but it does mean that he feels the 
need of a divine Saviour, that he 
believes Jesus to be God's Son and 
able to save to the uttermost all 
that come unto God by him. It 
means, too, that the believer has 
more than a mere intellectual as- 
sent to the fact that Jesus is God's 
Son. _ He has a consciousness of 
yielding to Jesus, of casting himself 
upon him as his only hope, of trust- 
ing him for salvation. 

But the believer's best ground of 
assurance is found in the definite 
words and promises of Jesus him- 
self. Jesus said, "He that believeth 
on the Son hath eternal life." K 
is a matter of definite promise and 
revelation that he who believes on 
Christ is saved. When Jesus says 
that the one who believes on him, 
relies upon him for salvation, is 
saved, and I consciously trust him, 
I then certainly have a right to an 
assurance that I am saved. This 
can be put, like any other point 
of reasoning, into the form of a 
syllogism. It is a matter of abso- 
lute revelation that he that believ- 
eth^ on Christ is saved. This is the 
major proposition of the syllogism. 
The minor proposition is, "I believe." 
That has no need of revelation ; it be- 
longs to the inner consciousness. Am 
not I just as sure that I believe as I 
am that my pulses beat? Now, put 
the minor under the major proposi- 
tion, and the infallible conclusion is, 
"Therefore I am saved." — H. 

7. Atonement. On a little church 
in Germany stands a stone lamb 



which has an interesting history. 
When some workmen were engaged 
on the roof of the building, one of 
them fell to the ground. His com- 
panions hastened down expecting to 
find him killed. They were amazed, 
however, to see him unhurt. A lamb 
had been grazing just where he 
struck the ground, and faUing upon 
it, the little creature was crushed to 
death, while the man himself es- 
caped injury. He was so grateful 
for this wonderful deliverance, that 
he had an image of the lamb carved 
in stone and placed on the building 
as a memorial. The lamb saved his 
life by dying in his place. 

8. Atonement, Cost of. "Mam- 
ma," said a little child to her 
mother when she was being put to 
bed at night — "Mamma, what makes 
your hand so scarred and twisted 
and unlike other people's hands?" 
"Well," said the mother, "my child, 
when you were younger than you 
are now, years ago, one night, after 
I had put you to bed, I heard a cry, 
a shriek, upstairs. I came up, and 
found the bed was on fire, and I took 
hold of you, and I tore off the burn- 
ing garments, and while I was tear- 
ing them off and trying to get you 
away I burned my hand, and it has 
been scarred and twisted ever since, 
and hardly looks any more like a 
hand; but I got that, my child, in 
trying to save you." I wish to-day I 
could show you the burned hand of 
Christ burned in plucking you out 
of the fire ; burned in snatching you 
away from the flame. Aye, also the 
burned foot and the burned brow, 
and the burned heart — burned for 
you. "By his stripes we are healed." 
— T. 

9. Attraction, Heavenward. I 

had preached a sermon in an eastern 
city when a man came to me to say, 
"Would you like to shake hands 
with a redeemed drunkard?" and I 
assured him that I would. He put 
his hand in mine and said, "Listen 
to my story. I once had one of the 
best positions in this city, but strong 
drink was my destruction. I was one 
day helplessly lying in the gutter 
when some one taking me by the 
hand said, 'If you want to see your 
boy alive, hurry home.' Quickly I 
went up to the room where my sin 
had forced my wife and boy to live, 



a8 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



and found that a great truck in the 
city had passed over the child and he 
was dying. He took me by the hand 
and pulled me down by his side and 
said, 'I will not let you go until you 
promise to meet me in Heaven,' and 
holding the hand he died. They had 
to break away his hand clasp from 
this hand of mine," said he, holding 
it up, "and from that day till this I 
have felt him pulling me heaven- 
ward." But this is true of every 
one who has a loved one yonder, 
"Come, for all things are now 
ready." It would be an awful thing 
to miss Heaven at last. — J. W. 
Chapman, D.D. 

10. Aviator, His Need of De- 
cision. See Decision, Must Be In- 
stantly Made. 

11. Backsliders, from Christ and 
the Church. "My people are bent 
on backsliding from me." Slipping 
away from God is caused by not 
drawing close to him. A little girl 
fell out of bed. When asked why, 
she replied, "I went to sleep too near 
the place I got in." 

12. Baptism, Meaning of. One 

of the earliest patients at the dis- 
pensary in Toro (Uganda) was an 
old man who came to receive medi- 
cine for an ulcer. He became pos- 
sessed with a desire to know the 
truth, and was put into the old men's 
Bible class for instruction. One day 
he came to the missionary with 
streaming eyes and said, "I want to 
be baptized." The missionary asked 
him, "Mpisi, will baptism save us?" 
And he answered, "Oh, no, only Jesus 
who died on the cross." "Then what 
is the use of baptism?" "Well," said 
he, "Christ told us to believe and be 
baptized, and it shows we want to 
leave our bad habits and follow the 
habits of Christ." That simple- 
minded, untutored old man had 
caught the true meaning and pur- 
pose of baptism — salvation from sin 
through the Saviour's atonement; an 
act of obedience to Christ's com- 
mand ; and a sign and seal of the 
covenant of grace, followed by a life 
of true devotion. 

13. Believe, and Climb. It was 

growing dark in the old barn, and 
to the child straying in and out of 
the fading- afternoon light it looked 



more shadowy still. But some one 
was moving about in the hay over- 
head, and the little fellow came to 
the foot of the ladder and called: 
"Is you there, grandpa? I want to 
come up." "All right, come along 
then," was the cheery response. But 
the little foot placed on the foot of 
the ladder paused; and a troubled 
face was lifted toward the dim loft 
"Grandpa, I can't see the top step." 
A reassuring laugh answered: "Put 
your foot on the round where you 
are, little man, and climb up. The 
last step is here, and you'll see it 
when you get to it." It was only 
the old lesson that we all need over 
and over again — the faithless cry we 
are always sending out to be allowed 
to see the end from the beginning, 
and the answer that in one way and 
another, by inspiration, by experi- 
ence, is always coming to us. Climb 
from where you are. Take the step 
that is next above you, and wait for 
the one beyond to be revealed in its 
time. Believe and climb. — The Op- 
timist. 

14. Believe God. The story is 
told of a young swallow, not a year 
old, who proved conclusively that 
his father and mother were wrong in 
migrating South for the winter. 
Having proved this, he remained 
North, to see what Christmas 
weather was like. Long before 
Christmas the poor little swallow 
was found dead on the ground. He 
had had the better of the argument, 
and the worst of the experience. If 
we are arguing, conclusively to our- 
selves against something that God 
offers us and that the Word of God 
says is true, it may enrich our ex- 
perience to turn away from our ar- 
guments and, without even attempt- 
ing to understand everything, just 
believe God. — Sunday School Times. 

15. Believing, on Christ. "What 
is it to believe on Christ?" It is: 
To feel your need of him. To believe 
that he is able and willing to save 
you, and to save you now. And to 
cast yourself unreservedly on his 
mercy, and trust in him alone for 
salvation. 

16. Bible, a Mirror. We need to 
see ourselves. That is why we have 
mirrors. Some people, of course, 
use mirrors in order to congratulate 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 29 



themselves on what they see; others 
use them in order to improve what 
they see. God tells us that his Word 
is a mirror which he wants us to 
use for our improvement. That is, 
he wants us to act on what we see 
there concerning ourselves. He says : 
"For if any one is a hearer of the 
word and not a doer, he is like unto 
a man beholding his natural face in 
a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, 
and goeth away, and straightway f or- 
getteth what manner of man he 
was." Mr. S. D. Gordon has said 
that the Bible is "The mirror of your 
needs: you see things about yourself 
there that you never see anywhere 
else. Some folks don't like it — some 
folks don't use it." But this is what 
God says about the right use of his 
mirror: "But he that looketh into 
the perfect law, the law of liberty 
and so continueth, being not a hearer 
that forgetteth but a doer that work- 
eth, this man shall be blessed in his 
doing." — Sunday School Times. 

17. Bible, a Sheep Book. "The 
Son of man came to seek and to 
save that which was lost." Luke 
19:10. A group of shepherds had 
been gathered by a missionary for 
the purpose of reading to them from 
the Holy Scriptures. These quaint 
rugged men were seated around a 
log fire, one chill night, in a rude 
cabin somewhere in the mountains of 
Asia Minor. The minister appro- 
priately read the tenth chapter of 
John, An eager voice interrupted 
with the question, "Oh, sir, is that 
the gospel?" "Yes," he replied, 
"this is the gospel of Jesus Christ." 
"Oh," said the shepherd, his face 
aglow with simple pleasure and con- 
fidence, "I didn't know before that 
it was a Sheep Book." Yes, it is a 
sheep book, and it is for us who are 
lost H. 

18. Bible, Means in Conversion. 

God's pre-eminent method in soul- 
winning is his Word. "You tell in- 
teresting stories when you are trying 
to win some one, but I think that the 
Word of God is the thing that brings 
conviction, and you ought to use it 
more," was a wife's loving counsel 
to her husband; and he discovered 
it to be true. Ralph C. Norton, who 
was the Director of Personal Work 
for the Chapman-Alexander Mis- 
sions, was talking with some friends 



about the supreme work of winning 
men one by one, in which God used 
him so wonderfully. When they no- 
ticed the almost exclusive place he 
gave to the Bible in personal work, 
one asked him : "What do you do, 
Mr. Norton, in cases where the un- 
saved man does not accept the Bible 
as having any authority?" "Well, 
if I had a fine Damascus sword with 
a keen double-edged blade I would 
not sheath it in a fight just because 
the other man said he did not be- 
lieve it would cut." The Spirit is 
acquainted with every objection that 
man can bring to accepting Christ, 
and his answers are the htsi.— Sun- 
day School Times. 

19. Bible, Means of Conversion. 

See Conversion, Of a Soldier. 

20. Bible Message Plus a Man. 

See Personal Work. 

21. Bible, The Word in the 
Word. "And Philip opened his 
mouth, and beginning from this 
Scripture, preached unto him Jesus." 
Acts 8 : 35. Some time ago one of 
my friends went out with a little 
boy who was leading him across the 
common from the railway station to 
the house. My friend said to him, 
"Co to _ Sunday-school ?" "Yes." 
"What did your teacher talk about 
last Sunday afternoon?" "Oh, he 
was talking about Jacob." "And 
what did he take the Sunday before 
that?" "Oh, he was talking about 
prayer." "Well, did your teacher 
talk about Jesus?" "Oh, no," said 
the little fellow, "that's at the other 
end of the book." Now I hold that 
Jesus is not at the other end of the 
B/ook, but he is all through the 
Book, and every chapter and every 
verse and every incident may some- 
how be made a road to Jesus. — F. B. 
Meyer. 

22. Blind, Hope for the. There 

is hope for the blind, — that is, if 
they know that they are blind. For 
they have a wonderful Guide. Sev- 
eral years ago the family of Dr. Au- 
gustus H. Strong, whose death oc- 
curred in 1921, met for a remarkable 
reunion with their father, then 
eighty-one years old. And he told 
them that he had never planned a 
book he had written, never delivered 
an address, never come into any 



30 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



great change in his life, but that one 
word described his life as he looked 
back upon it from more than four- 
score years : "He leadeth the blind 
by a way he knoweth not." This 
was based on Isaiah's word, "And 
I will bring the blind by a way that 
they know not; in paths that they 
know not will I lead them; I will 
make darkness light before them, 
and crooked places straight. These 
things will I do, and I will not for- 
sake them" (Isa. 42: 16). It is those 
who are blind and do not know it 
who are to be pitied indeed. Our 
Lord spoke a searching word to them 
as he said : "Because thou sayest, I 
am rich, and have gotten riches, and 
have need of nothing; and knowest 
not that thou art the wretched one 
and miserable and poor and blind 
and naked : I counsel thee to buy of 
me . . . eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, 
that thou mayest see" (Rev. 3:17, 
18). If we feel that we are blind, 
let us rejoice, for then we are sure 
of an invitation to the feast of our 
Lord, who has given orders "to bring 
in hither the poor and maimed and 
blind and lame." — Sunday School 
Times. 

23. Blindness, Spiritual. One 

evening during the Torrey-Alexander 
meetings held in Philadelphia, the 
vast audience was singing the hymn 
describing the change which will take 
place when our Saviour shall appear. 
An old man, sitting near the plat- 
form, joined most heartily, espe- 
cially in the chorus. Mr. Alexander, 
who has the sharpest eyes, noticed 
the old man, and in his winsome way 
asked if he would not rise and sing 
the chorus by himself. The request 
was complied with, and a somewhat 
quavering voice sang the words: 

"Oh, what a change! Oh, what a 

change ! 
When I shall behold his wonder- 
ful face." 

The old man sat down. Mr. Alex- 
ander said : "My friends, these words 
mean more to our friend here than 
you and I can imagine. To see our 
Saviour's face will be a joy to us, 
but what will it be to him Avhose 
eyes are closed to all earthly sights, 
for he is blind." 

24. Blood, in Science and Salva- 
tion. It is known in chemistry that 



scarlet and crimson colors are in- 
eradicable. They never wear out or 
fade away; but, with Christ's blood, 
"though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow ; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall 
be as wool." In science blood is a 
bleacher; in medicine, by the trans- 
fusion of blood, a dying person re- 
covers his life, for there is Hfe in 
the blood. Therefore, it is not 
strange that, in the higher realm, the 
sinsick soul partakes of the divine 
nature through the blood of Jesus, 
so that he exclaims, "I live, yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me." 

25. Blood, of Christ. Among 
the folk-lore tales of the American 
Indians Mr. George A. Dorsey tells 
the following, found current among 
the Wichitas : "When darkness came, 
Afterbirth-Boy again looked around 
to see where his father had gone. 
He finally found his trail, and he 
followed it with his eye until he 
found the place where his father 
had stopped. He called his brother 
and told him to ^ bring his arrows 
and to shoot up right straight over- 
head. The boy brought his arrows 
and shot one up into the sky. Then 
he waited for a while, and finally 
saw a drop of blood come down. 
It was the blood of their father. 
When the boys did not return, he 
gave up all hope of ever seeing 
them again, and so he went up into 
the sky and became a star. They 
knew that this blood belonged to 
their father, and in this way they 
found out where he had gone. They 
at once shot up two arrows and then 
caught hold of them and went up 
in the sky with the arrows. Now 
the two brothers stand by their fa- 
ther in the sky." 

It is by the sign of the blood that 
flowed on Calvary that many souls 
have trusted to follow their great 
Forerunner to the land beyond the 
sky. The arrows we send thither 
are named Faith and Hope. 

26. Brother, Saving Your. Some 
time ago, in the East of London, they 
were digging a deep drain. In the 
neighborhood of Victoria Park some 
of the shoring gave way and tons of 
earth fell down upon several men 
who were at work there. Of course 
there was a great deal of excitement. 
Standing by the brink was a man 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 31 



looking on, intently watching those 
who were attempting to dig out the 
earth. But a woman came up to him, 
put her hand on his shoulder, and 
said, "Bill, your brother is down 
there!" You should have seen the 
sudden change ! Off went his coat, 
and then he sprang into the trench 
and worked as if he had the strength 
of ten men. 

Oh, my fellow Christian, amid the 
masses of the sin-crushed, the de- 
graded and the lost, your brother is 
there ! My brother is there. We 
may fold our arms and say, "Am I 
my brother's keeper?" But yes, we 
are. It is not for us to shirk the 
responsibility. There lie our breth- 
ren, and we shall have to give an 
account concerning them. Whenever 
a brother man lies under the crush- 
ing weight of heathenism, or igno- 
rance, or superstition ; or, nearer 
home, under the awful bulk of somxe 
evil habit, or degradation, or crime; 
from that spot of peril comes to us 
a call for rescue. It is a call to which, 
if unheeded, none of us can say with 
Paul, referring to the lost, "I am 
pure from the blood of all men." 

Let us not forget that the highest 
work given to mortals is that of sav- 
ing souls. It is the work which 
Christ himself came into this world 
to do. It is work which we must 
do if we would be Christ-like or 
even human. There is only one Sav- 
iour, but human messengers must 
tell the story of his love and bring 
men to him to be saved. In these 
days Christ does not go along the 
paths- of life seeking the lost, save 
in the persons of his disciples. Think 
then of our great responsibility as 
Christians. Our mission is to carry 
Christ to those who do not know 
him, or to carry them to him. There 
are people who may never be saved 
unless it be through us, and every 
one who calls for rescue is a brother. 
— H. 

27. Bought with Blood. A boy 

of a mechanical turn of mind made 
himself a toy motor-boat to sail upon 
a stream of water that flowed near 
his home. On taking it to the stream 
he found it was defective, and it 
sailed away from him far beyond 
his reach. After many efforts to re- 
cover it he was at last compelled to 
return home without it. To him it 
was lost. Not long after he was sur- 



prised to see in a store of his town 
a boat with a card attached : "This 
motor-boat for sale. Price, five shil- 
Hngs." It was his! He made his 
loss known to the then owner, but it 
was futile. He could have it for the 
price of five shillings. He went home 
and told his father of his predica- 
ment The father heard the story 
and said : "Here's the money ; go 
and buy back your own boat." And 
when he at last received it from the 
vendor he hugged it to himself and 
said : "You are twice mine ; I made 
you, and I bought you." So we are 
Christ's by twofold claim; he made 
us and he redeemed us. He made 
us his the second time by a great 
price. 

This is God's appeal to us : "You 
are twice mine. I made you and I 
bought you." — H. 

28. Boy Convert. Great Result. 

See Convert, Importance of One. 

29. Boy's Decision for Christ. 

See Decision for Christ. 

30. Boy, His Devotion. A four- 
teen-year-old boy from a missionary 
school, while on a visit to some 
friends, went into a village temple 
one afternoon, and there found a fee- 
ble ola man passing from idol to idol, 
and praying and offering incense 
sticks. The boy's heart was touched 
by the sight, and tears rolled down 
his cheeks. At last he went up to 
the old man, and said, "Would you 
mind a boy speaking to you? I am 
young; you are old." The man was 
not offended, and after some conver- 
sation the lad told him the story of 
God's love. The man's heart was 
melted as he listened. "Boy," he 
said, "I have never heard such words 
before." He took the lad home with 
him, so that his wife might hear the 
wonderful story. And these two 
were led to the Saviour before they 
ever saw or heard of a missionary. — 
The Quiver. 

31. Boy, His Testimony. See 
Resisting Christ. 

32. Boy, His Own. Dr. Cort- 
land Myers relates the following 
story, as told by a ship's surgeon: 
"On our last trip a boy fell over- 
board from the deck. I didn't know 
who he was, and the crew hastened 



32 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



out to save him. They brought him 
on board the ship, took off his outer 
garments, turned him over a few 
times and worked his hands and feet. 
When they had done all they knew 
how to do, I came up to be of as- 
sistance, and they said he was dead 
and beyond help. I turned away as 
I said to them : 'I think you've done 
all you could,' but just then a sudden 
impulse told me I ought to go over 
and see what I could do. I went 
over and looked down into the boy's 
face and discovered that it was my 
own boy. Well, you may believe I 
didn't think the last thing had been 
done. I pulled off my coat, and bent 
over that boy; I blew into his nos- 
trils and breathed into his mouth; I 
turned him over and over, and sim- 
ply begged God to bring him back to 
life, and for four long hours I 
worked until just at sunset I began to 
see the least flutter of breath that 
told me he lived. Oh, I will never 
see another boy drown without taking 
off my coat in the first instance and 
going to him and trying to save him 
as if I knew he were my own boy." 
Let us act thus. Realize. Feel. 
Act. Continue. — H. 

33. Business, a Christianas. A 

pastor of a growing church was trav- 
eling on a train, and, finding himself 
seated beside ^ a fellow ^ passenger, 
asked, "What is your business?" "I 
am a salesman; I sell typewriters," 
was the answer. "Here's my cata- 
logue. By the way, what is your 
business?" "I'm a salesman, too. 
Here's my catalogue," and he handed 
his companion a Bible. 

If the church is trying to make 
Christians, just as the business or- 
ganizations are trying to make divi- 
dends, why shouldn't this be the key- 
note of its utterances? 

34. Call, a Gentle. See Conver- 
sion of Children. 

35. Call, God's. One day during 
the Boer war, just as the train was 
starting from Waterloo Station, 
London, a fine man, hot and weary, 
entered the carriage where I was sit- 
ting, and hastily seating himself, as 
if more exertion were impossible, ex- 
claimed, "I'm called." He soon fell 
asleep, and we noticed that he was a 
stoker, and was black with the soot 
and oil of his engine. He awoke and 



again exclaimed, "I'm called." Then 
he told us he was a reservist, and was 
to join his regiment at Aldershot 
immediately. He did not wait to 
wash or put on his best clothes, but 
at once obeyed the call of his king. 
God has called us. Have we an- 
swered as readily? — Sunday School 
Chronicle. 

36. Call, of God. One day a 

little boy was playing on forbidden 
ground. His mother called to him to 
come back. He paid no attention, so 
again she called louder, then louder 
still. The nurse repeated her com- 
mand, but there was no response. 
Finally the mother started down the 
gravel walk, calling as she went. 
Suddenly the small boy turned to his 
nurse and said, "Tell mother not to 
call any louder, I can't hear her any- 
way." 

Be not deaf to God's call. There 
are none so deaf as those who^ do 
not want to hear. Boys and girls, 
be not deaf to God's call. — H. 

37. Call, the Last. There is a 
pathos in the last of any series, and 
especially when it has involved any- 
thing worth while. The athlete is 
familiar with "Casey at the Bat," — 
score tied, bases full, and two men 
out. The traveler is familiar with 
"The Last Call to Dinner" given with 
portorial eloquence. The bargain 
hunter is familiar with the auction- 
eer's "Fair warning — last call." The 
"go, going, gone" is an every-day 
experience. There is such a thing 
as a last call in religion. 

38. Call to Decision. In one of 

the tenement houses in New York 
City a doctor was sent for. He 
came and found a young man very 
sick. When he got to the bed-side 
the young man said : "Doctor, I don't 
want you to deceive me ; I want to 
know the worst. Is this illness to 
prove serious?" 

After the doctor had made an ex- 
amination, he said : "I am sorry to 
tell you you cannot live out the 
night." The young man looked up 
and said : "Well, then, I have missed 
it at last!" "Missed what?" "I have 
missed eternal life. I always in- 
tended to become a Christian some 
day, but I thought I had plenty of 
time and I put it off." 

The doctor, who was himself a 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 33 



Christian man, said, "It is not too 
late. Call on God for mercy." "No, 
I have always had a great contempt 
for a man who repents when he is 
dying; he is a miserable coward. If 
I were not sick I would not have a 
thought about my soul, and I am not 
going to insult God now." 

The doctor spent the day with him, 
read to him out of the Bible and 
tried to get him to lay hold of the 
promises. The young man said he 
would not call on God, and in that 
state of mind he passed away. Just 
as he was dying the doctor saw his 
lips moving. He reached down, and 
all he could hear was the faint whis- 
per: "I have missed it at last!" 

Make sure that you do not miss 
eternal life at last. Will you go 
with Herod or with John? Bow 
your head now and say: "Son of 
God, come into this heart of mine. I 
yield myself to Thee fully, wholly, 
unreservedly." He will come to you, 
and will not only save you, but will 
keep you to the end. — The Christian 
Observer, 

39. Call to Salvation, Respond 
Promptly. See Hurry, In Salva- 
tion. 

40. Character, Average. An old 

writer tells a story of a man who 
prided himself on his great morality, 
and expected to be saved by it, who 
was constantly saying: "I am doing 
pretty well on the whole ; I sometimes 
get mad and swear, but then I am 
strictly honest; I work on Sunday 
when I am particularly busy, but I 
give a good deal to the poor, and I 
was never drunk in my life." 

This man once hired a canny 
Scotchman to build a fence round 
his lot, and gave him very particular 
directions as to his work. In the 
evening, when the Scotchman came 
in from his labor, the man said : 
**Well,^ Jock, is the fence built, and 
is it tight and strong?" 

"I cannot say that it is all tight 
and strong," replied Jock; "but it's 
a good average fence, anyhow. If 
some parts are a little weak, others 
are extra strong. I don't know but 
what I may have left a gap here and 
there, a yard wide or so ; but then 
I made up for it by doubling the 
number of rails on each side of the 
gap. I dare say that the cattle will 
find it a very good fence, on the 



whole, and will like it, though I can- 
not just say that it's perfect." 

"What," cried the man, not seeing 
the point, "do you tell me that you 
have built a fence round my lot with 
weak places in it, and gaps in it? 
Why, you might as well have built 
no fence at all. If there is one open- 
ing, or a place where an opening 
can be made, the cattle will be sure 
to find it, and all will go through. 
Don't you know, man, that a fence 
must be perfect or it is worthless?" 

"I used to think so," said the dry 
Scotchman, "but I hear you talk so 
much about averaging matters with 
the Lord, seems to me that we might 
try it with the cattle. If an average 
fence will not do for them, I am 
afraid that an average character will 
not do on the day of judgment." 

41. Character, Crisis In. "Years 
ago, in a New England college, there 
was a time of deep religious inter- 
est. Two students were standing at 
a gate, hesitating as to whether to 
go in and talk with the president 
about what they must do to be saved. 
They decided differently, they sep- 
arated for the time, and the decisions 
then made seemed to have determined 
the separation of the lives for eter- 
ni<-y That was the way in which 
men faced their future in Christ's 
time; that is the way in which un- 
heeded, all around us every day, 
lives are being made or marred. 

No man remains standing at the 
cross-roads. Crises in character, like 
those in disease, do not last weeks or 
months ; they pass, and there is 
progress in one direction or the other. 
Christ's words leave no doubt about 
that." 

42. Child, God's. See God, Kin- 
ship With. 

43. Child Church Members. The 

little son of a distinguished minister 
came to him one day to say 
that he wanted to become a mem- 
ber of the Church. His father 
thought he knew the boy and said 
to him : "My son, you may not 
just understand what it means to 
join the church." The child, how- 
ever, assured him that he did. 
Finally, the father persuaded him to 
accept this proposition. He said : 
"We are just now going away for the 
summer vacation. When we come 



34 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



back, if you still wish it, we will then 
take you into the church." This was 
not according to the boy's desire, 
but he yielded. The summer passed, 
but, said this minister, "When I came 
back in the fall I came back without 
my boy. He died in the summer 
days." Doubtless the child was ac- 
cepted of Christ because of his de- 
sire, but I am firmly convinced that 
he ought to have been in the church, 
and the father believes it, too, to- 
day. — Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

44. Child, Leading to Christ. 

One evening, at a service in New 
York City, I saw a very distin- 
guished looking man rise and say, 
"I will accept Christ." I went back 
to the hotel and told my wife I be- 
lieved I had been used by Christ to 
lead a great man to God. I thought 
I had, but the next day, which was 
a day of prayer, I saw this man 
come into the service carrying in his 
arms a little lame boy. He brought 
him forward, and placing him on the 
platform, he came over to me, and, 
.placing his hand up to his mouth so 
the child could not hear him, he 
said, "I want to introduce to you 
my little Joe; he is going to die.". 
He did not need to tell me that. 
The little fellow's face was so thin 
and his hands were so white. When 
I came over he said with all the 
pride of a father, "This is Joe; he 
led me to Christ." I confess I was 
a bit disappointed. Then he told 
me the story. He said: "When the 
mission started, Joe said to me, 'Fa- 
ther, I cannot go, but mother will 
take you, and all the time you are 
gone I will pray.' I never came into 
the house at night that I did not hear 
the thud of his little crutch on the 
floor as he came to welcome me the 
moment the door was opened. He 
would spring into my arms and say, 
'Did you come?' But last night he 
did not ask me. I heard him com- 
ing to the door and as it was opened 
he sprang into my arms and buried 
his face in my shoulder, and I heard 
him say with a sob, 'You have come, 
you have come, I know you have.' " — 
Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

^ 45. Children, Becoming Chris- 
tians. Sometimes the Christian 
life begins very simply, especially 
with the young. Thinking of my 
own early experiences I am wonder- 



ing if there may not be some boys 
and girls, possibly many, who do not 
realize how gently God's call can 
come, or how simply the Christian 
life may begin. For I know that I 
was a Christian for a good while 
before I dared to cherish any confi- 
dent hope that I was. Among those 
who have been under good influ- 
ences in the home, the church, the 
Bible-school and have been living 
sweet and gentle lives, free from 
grosser forms of evil, it is unreason- 
able ^^to expect any violent "experi- 
ence'' or marked change in manner 
of living. Failing to recognize this 
fact, many parents continue to wres- 
tle with the Lord in prayer for the 
conversion of their children long after 
that change has really taken place; 
while the children and young people 
themselves, on account of the same 
mistaken impression, continue long 
in strong efforts and deep unsatis- 
fied longings to become Christians 
after God has indeed accepted them 
and they are actually living devotedly 
in his service. 

It is well for us all to recognize 
how simply and quietly the Christian 
life sometimes begins. 

A thoughtful girl of sixteen years, 
living in the country at a distance 
from the church, which made attend- 
ance irregular, read, on a Sunday, 
the memoir of a Christian woman. 
On closing the volume, she said to 
herself, "That was a beautiful life." 
After a little thought, she added, 
"And I should like to live such a 
life." A few minutes later, she 
kneeled down and said, "Lord, I will 
try from this time." The decision 
was made. She went on steadily, and 
is still a useful and influential Chris- 
tian woman, honored and beloved, and 
widely known for her beautiful and 
devout character. — H. 

46. Children. Brother Them. 
Sister Them. Let the minister go 
over his membership with care and, 
selecting the most competent people 
among them, appoint for each child 
a spiritual guardian, who shall be 
asked to make the nurture of that 
child's religious life his special study 
and attention. He _ should see that 
the child has good literature to read, 
encourage his regular attendance at 
church, occasionally visit him, or in- 
vite the child to his own home, and, 
by these and various other means, 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 35 



seek to deepen and mature the Chris- 
tian life of this spiritual ward. The 
church I serve has followed this plan 
for some time, and with most satis- 
factory results. 

May the Good Shepherd help us 
to lead all these lambs of his fold 
into green pastures and beside the 
still waters, and write all their names 
in the Lamb's Book of Life. — Rev. 
John Balcom Shaw, D.D. 

47. Children, Can Serve Christ. 
"Have you ever been to see a bat- 
tleship launched? You know it is 
built upon an inclined structure, gen- 
erally wooden, called the ways. But 
holding the vessel in place, and to 
keep it from sliding into the water, 
are huge beams, which must be sawed 
away when the boat is launched. 
One day I was invited to see a large 
battleship launched at Cramps'^ ship- 
yard. The ways had been lubricated, 
or oiled so that the ship might slip 
out easily, and the great beams had 
been knocked away, but the ship 
wouldn't move! 

"There it stood, with every one 
waiting breathlessly for it to go. 
The ones in authority did not know 
what to make of it, nor what to do. 
Suddenly a little boy was heard to 
cry out, T know how to make it go, 
mother.' Dashing out of the crowd, 
he went up to that big ship, put his 
shoulder against it, and shoved it 
with all his might. Soon the ship 
was seen to quiver, and down the 
ways she slid, out into the water! 
All that was needed was the extra 
help from that little boy. 

"Perhaps you have often thought, 
*What can a boy like me do?' or 
*What can a girl do?' in helping 
along this great work for Christ. 
But possibly everything is all ready 
to go and is just waiting for the 
shove of some boy or girl. Let us 
remember the story of the ship and 
the boy's shove, knowing that Christ 
will use our little effort — ^if it is the 
greatest that we can give — ^to help 
the advancement of his Kingdom." 

48. Children, Christ Surely Re- 
ceives. A beautiful story is told 
of Francis Xavier. He was engaged 
in his missionary work, and hundreds 
kept coming until he was literally 
worn out. *T must have sleep," he 
said to his servant, "or I shall die. 
No matter who comes, do not disturb 



me ; I must sleep." Hastening to his 
tent, he left his faithful attendant to 
watch. In a little while, however, 
the servant saw Xavier's white face 
at the tent door. Answering his call, 
he saw on his countenance a look 
of awe, as if he had seen a vision. 
"I made a mistake," said the mis- 
sionary.^ "I made a mistake. If a 
little child comes, waken me." — J. R. 
Miller, D.D. 

49. Child Christians. An evan- 
gelist was talking to a meeting of 
children. He brought out a row 
of candles on a board; a very long 
candle was at one end, a very short 
one at the other. Between the long 
one and the short one were candles 
of various heights. He said that 
by these candles he wanted to repre- 
sent the grandfather, father and 
mother, boys and girls, and the baby 
of a family who never heard of 
Christ until a missionary came — 
whom he represented by a lighted 
candle — and then they all gave their 
hearts to Jesus, and from that day 
loved and served him. He then asked' 
which candle they thought repre- 
sented the grandfather, the mother, 
and so on. They all thought that 
the tallest candle would be the grand- 
father, but he told them, "No, that 
stands for the baby, the youngest 
member of the family." Presently 
one little boy said : "I know why ; he 
has the chance to shine the longest 
for Jesus." 

50. Children, Influenced by Par- 
ents. The wife of a prominent 
lawyer who had been under deep 
conviction for several days gave the 
following account at our prayer- 
meeting of her conversion. 

"Last evening my little girl came 
to me and said: 'Mamma, are you a 
Christian?' 

" 'No, Fannie, I am not.' 

"She turned and went away, and as 
she walked off I heard her say, 'Well, 
if mamma isn't a Christian, I don't 
want to be one.' 

"And I tell you, my dear friends, it 
went right to my heart, and then I 
gave myself up to Christ." 

Will you delay decision for Christ 
when you know that your course is 
imperiling other souls? 

51. Children, Leading Parents to 
Christ. Dr. R. A. Torrey tells a 



36 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



beautiful story of a man in Chicago 
who had a sweet little daughter. He 
loved her dearly, but God took that 
little child away from him. The 
house was so lonely and he was so 
angry against God that he went up 
and down in his room far into the 
night cursing God for having robbed 
him of his child. At last thoroughly 
worn out, and in great bitterness of 
spirit, he threw himself on his bed. 
He dreamed he stood beside a river. 
Across the river in the distance he 
heard the singing of such voices as 
he had never listened to before. Then 
he saw in the distance beautiful little 
girls coming toward him, nearer and 
nearer, until at last at the head of 
the company he saw his own little 
girl. She stood on the brink of the 
river and called across, "Come over 
here, father." That overcame his bit- 
terness ; he accepted Jesus and pre- 
pared to go over yonder where his 
sweet child had gone. 

52. Children, Lost. Have you 
ever had the experience of, even for 
a little time, being lost in a great 
city? If so, then you know how to 
sympathize with the poor little waifs 
that in New York, and in other large 
cities, are often picked up by the 
police. The summer is the great 
season for lost children, because 
doors are left open and they so easily 
slip out into the street and wander 
off. The first indication a policeman 
has of a lost child is to see it crying, 
and when he asks its name and num- 
ber the poor little one generally an- 
swers in sobs. The lost one is at 
once carried to police headquarters, 
where a matron is employed for this 
purpose. It is washed and fed, and 
also consoled with the promise that 
"Mamma will come soon." And sure 
enough, whenever a mother finds that 
her child has wandered, she at once 
applies to the above-mentioned place, 
which has witnessed many an affec- 
tionate reunion. 

One year the New York City 
record contained the names of 3,137 
lost children who were thus restored. 
Most of the number belonged to the 
poorer classes, who move so often 
that the children get lost before they 
become acquainted with the locality. 
Occasionally some rich man's child 
slips away from a careless nurse and 
turns up in that roomful of the poor 
little ones which is gathered every 



day. Let every father and mother 
learn the lesson. In almost every 
case the child is lost through paren- 
tal neglect. 

It was Socrates who once said, 
"Could I climb to the highest place 
in Athens, I would lift up my voice 
and proclaim: Fellow-citizens, why 
do you turn and scrape every stone 
to gather wealth, and take so little 
care of your children, to whom one 
day you must relinquish it all ?" Soc- 
rates lived in a land unillumined by 
the gospel of Christ; yet it would 
seem that in these days some emphatic 
voice were needed to call fathers and 
mothers in Christian America to a 
sense of their duty toward the souls 
of the children committed to their 
trust— H. 

53. Children, May Work in a 
Revival. "Out of the mouths of 
babes and sucklings thou hast per- 
fected praise." 

A native king in West Africa was 
induced by a missionary to lay aside 
his royalty for a time and attend a 
Christian educational institution. He 
graduated with honors, but having 
head knowledge only, went back to 
his tribe, put on his heathen clothes, 
took a half-dozen wives, and sank 
back into degradation. Bishop Tay- 
lor preached to him one day for full 
two hours, but left him still in dark- 
ness. Soon after, the bishop estab- 
lished a mission station on the bank 
of the river opposite the king's pal- 
ace. A lady opened a nursery, and 
soon had twenty native children un- 
der her care. In less than two years 
most of them were genuinely con- 
verted, and at a public meeting were 
called upon to testify, from personal 
experience, to the reality of the sal- 
vation of Jesus. One by one these 
children stood on a box, and told the 
story with such simple clearness and 
evident truthfulness that the heathen 
were convinced. The king and sev- 
eral of his chiefs were brought to 
God, and he became the native pas- 
tor of the church erected in his vil- 
lage. 

There is a place in revival work 
for the testimony of children. — H. 

54. Children, Parental Neglect 

of. The son of an eminent bar- 
rister in England was once standing 
in a felon's dock awaiting a sentence 
of transportation. Said the judge, 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 37 



who knew his parentage and his 
history, "Do you remember your 
father?" "Perfectly," said the young 
man; "whenever I entered his pres- 
ence he would say, 'Run away, my 
lad, and don't trouble me.' " In this 
way that great lawyer gained time 
and was enabled to complete his fa- 
mous work on "The Law of Trusts." 
But his son, in the meantime, fur- 
nished a practical commentary on the 
way in which his father had dis- 
charged that most sacred of all trusts, 
committed to him in the person of 
his own child. 

Visitors to Niagara Falls are 
shown the spot where, a few years 
since, a gentleman was playfully toss- 
ing a child in his arms towards the 
flood rushing at his feet on the edge 
of the precipice, when the little bur- 
den sprang from his grasp, and in a 
moment was gone — a speck in the 
foam below. We can only imagine 
the emotions of the man whose 
charge so suddenly passed to fearful 
death. 

But surely this is a trivial thing 
compared with the parental sacri- 
fices seen daily everywhere. How 
carelessly do loving hands fling young 
souls, by the power of unholy in- 
fluence or neglect, upon the tide of 
moral ruin! To trifle, however 
fondly, with the body is bad enough ; 
but lightly to value the undying soul 
and let it drift into the sweeping 
current of worldhness is awful 
pastime. — H. 

55. Children, Responsibility of. 

We do not know just when our chil- 
dren may reach the point of responsi- 
bility. It is said that in the Niagara 
River there is one point called "Past 
Redemption Point," and that if one 
reaches and passes this place, he is 
hurried on to the rapids and the 
chances are all against his life being 
saved. We do not know at what 
age our children may pass this point 
in their lives. 

This being true, it is wise for us 
to present Christ to them as a 
Saviour very early in their lives. It 
is said that the cannon ball passing 
through a four-foot bore of the can- 
non receives its impulse for the whole 
course it is to travel. And the 
statement has been made that the 
Catholic authorities have said: "If 
you will give us your children for 
the first nine years of their lives. 



you can never win them away from 
us." It is therefore doubtless true 
that many a child receives impres- 
sions before he is ten years of age 
that determine the whole course of 
his after life. What an awful re- 
sponsibility not to present Christ to 
him as Saviour and Keeper. 

56. Christ, Ashamed of. Ay 
church member was going up to a 
lumber-camp in the north and a 
friend said to him : "If those lum- 
ber-jacks find out you're a Christian, 
they'll make sport of you." The 
man went up there, and when he 
came back his friend said: "Well, 
how did you get along with the lum- 
ber-jacks?" The man answered: 
"All right. They didn't find it 
out." 

That's the way with so many peo- 
ple who profess to be Christians. 
They're church members, but a stran- 
ger would have a mighty hard time 
finding it out. The first thing a man 
does when he joins a lodsre is to get 
a pin, and if anybody says anything 
about the lodge he will stand up and 
fight for it; but there are a lot of 
church members who will see the 
Church and Jesus Christ insulted 
and never open their mouths. — Billy 
Sunday. 

57. Choice, Brief but Endless. 

The cross of Christ and the cross to 
be borne by his follower always 
stand at the parting of the ways. 

The disciples who went back 
"walked no more with him." That 
is the significant thing. Out from 
some railroad centres the tracks run 
side by side. A divergence of a few 
inches decides a difference of thou- 
sands of miles in destinations. The 
parting of the two ways is not tem- 
porary, they never merge into one 
again. Each course continues in the 
direction in which it starts, and a 
gulf great and impassable stands fixed 
throughout eternity separating the 
goals of the two roads between which 
each person has one opportunity to 
choose. That choice is brief but 
yet endless. 

58. Choices, Only Two. Said an 
old salt to the young apprentice : 
"Aboard a man o' war, my lad, there's 
only two choices. One's duty; 
t'other's mutiny." — Rev. A. S. Wood- 

BURNE. 



38 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



59. Christ, Confessed. "Whoso- 
ever shall confess me before men," 
etc. Luke 12 : 8. As illustrating the 
timely help Salvationist officers^ are 
able to give men who, newly arrived, 
have to face a great temptation to 
hide their colors, a commissioner re- 
lated this incident : "At one camp 
a Salvationist service man came to 
our hut and, getting in touch with 
the officer, told him he was having 
a big fight, and wanted his prayers. 
A little inquiry elicited the informa- 
tion that he had just arrived, and 
was to sleep that night in a room 
with several unconverted men. He 
wanted to be bold, he said, and take 
his stand from the first. Of course 
the officer was only too ready to help, 
prayed with him and for him, and 
sent him off. On reaching his room 
the man found his mates already as- 
sembled, and said to them, 'Men, I 
am a Salvationist, and as such I am 
of course going to pray before I 
turn in !' Not a word was said and 
our man dropped on his knees, but 
instead of praying silently he prayed 
aloud ! Nothing happened till next 
night, when, on returning to the 
sleeping quarters, our man was greeted 
by one of the* men who, speaking 
for the others, said, 'Matey, we've 
been waiting for you ; we want you 
to pray with us before we turn in !' '* 

60. Christ, Confession of. "Who- 
soever, therefore, shall confess me 
before men, him will I confess also 
before my Father which is in heaven." 
Matt. 10:32. 

A little more than six years ago 
a friend, who is deeply interested 
in work for Christ among sailors, 
told me that at the close of a prayer 
meeting of which he had been the 
leader, a young seaman, who had only 
a few nights before been converted, 
came up to him, and, laying a blank 
card before him, requested him to 
write a few words upon it, because, 
he said : "You will do it more plainly 
than I can." "What must I write?" 
said my friend. "Write these words, 
sir: 'I love Jesus — do you?' After 
he had written them, my friend said : 
"Now you must tell me what you 
are going to do with the card." He 
replied : "I am going to sea to-mor- 
row, and I am afraid if I do not 
take a stand at once I may begin to 
be ashamed of my religion, and let 
myself be laughed out of it alto- 



gether. Now as soon as I go on 
board, I shall walk straight to my 
bunk and nail up this card upon it, 
that every one may know that I am 
a Christian, and may give up all 
hope of making me either ashamed 
or afraid of adhering to the Lord." 
The young sailor was right. A 
bold front is often more than half 
the battle, and many a general has 
saved himself from being attacked 
by making what is called a "show 
of force." So let it be with you 
in the carrying out of your religious 
convictions. Meet your assailants, 
not with retaliation, but with calm 
fortitude. 

61. Christ, Coming to. Coming 
to Jesus is the desire of the heart 
after him. It is to feel our sin 
and misery ; to believe that he is able 
and willing to pardon, comfort, and 
save us ; to ask him to help us, and 
to trust in him as our Friend. To 
have just the same feelings and de- 
sires as if he were visibly present, 
and we came and implored him to 
bless us, is to come to him, though 
we do not see his face nor hear his 
voice. 

62. Christ, Conquers Our Hearts. 

See Hearts, Conquered by Christ. 

63. Christ, Depended on for 
Salvation. In a factory where del- 
icate fabrics were woven, when the 
threads at any time became tangled 
the operatives were required to press 
a button and the superintendent 
would appear to rectify things. On 
one occasion, however, though a 
young girl had just a little while 
before touched the button for assist- 
ance, a woman who was an old hand 
at the work thought she "knew," and 
could get along without this formal- 
ity. The threads became inextrica- 
bly mixed, and much damage en- 
sued. To the superintendent she 
said, "I did my best." To which 
he replied, "Doing your best is send- 
ing for me." Doing our best is de- 
pending on Christ. Ask him to save 
you. Ask him to help you. Ask 
him to empower you. Doing your 
best is depending on Christ. — H. 

64. Christ, Earnestly Sought. 

A farmer lost a five-pound note in 
the barn. He was not a wealthy 
man, and the loss of this note was 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 39 



a serious matter to him. He re- 
solved to turn over every straw un- 
til he found it. After some days of 
search he discovered the precious 
bank-note, and went home greatly re- 
joicing. A little later he was brought 
under deep conviction of sin, and 
said to his wife: "I wish I could 
beheve in the Saviour, but, alas! I 
cannot find him." She replied, "If 
you look for him as you looked for 
that note in the barn, you will find 
him." Acting upon that advice, he 
was soon rejoicing in the possession 
of Christ. We must strive to enter 
in by the narrow door. 

65. Christ Giving Himself. See 

Sacrifice, Willing. 

66. Christ, Gladdened. The 
Bible described Christ as the ''Man 
of Sorrows." Did you ever con- 
sider why Jesus was so sorrowful? 
Was it not in part because of the 
ill treatment which he received from 
those whom he came to save? 

When he was born, there was no 
room for him in the inn. Afterward 
there was no room for him in Jeru- 
salem. Herod, thirsting for his 
blood, condemned to death all the 
children of Bethlehem under two 
years, so the parents of Jesus fled to 
Egypt for safety. He returned to 
Nazareth, the most despised hamlet 
in Galilee, but no sooner had he be- 
gun his public ministry than the peo- 
ple drove him out of the town. He 
went down to Capernaum to live, 
but in a few months he was driven 
out of that city. From that time 
he had no place that he could call 
home. He went into the temple at 
Jerusalem, "My Father's house," as 
he loved to call it, but the priests 
soon drove him out. They wanted 
the room for merchandise. He 
crossed the sea to Gadara, and the 
Gadarenes besought him to "depart 
out of their coasts." Really, there 
was no place for him in this world. 
*'He came to his own and his own re- 
ceived him not." They despised him, 
rejected him, and finally sent him 
back to Heaven with the words, 
"Not wanted," plainly written on 
his pierced hands and bleeding 
brow. 

Is it any wonder that he was a 
Man of Sorrows? Is it any wonder 
that he rejoices with joy unspeakable 
when any one offers him a home in 



their hearts? — Rev. Howard W. 
Pope. 

67. Christ, His Blood Cleansing. 

"The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 
1:7. In the old fighting days be- 
tween England and Scotland the Eng- 
lish soldiers were hunting the fugi- 
tive Robert Bruce, and they hit upon 
a clever scheme to discover him. 
They put on his track his own blood- 
hounds, and Bruce soon heard their 
deep baying. Then his solitary at- 
tendant heard the sound, and said: 
"We are lost. The English have un- 
leashed the hounds, and they are on 
our trail." "No," answered Bruce, 
"it is all right. They will not catch 
us yet. There is a stream yonder. 
We will plunge into it, and the dogs 
will lose our scent." So when the 
hounds came to the water they lost 
the trail, and the attempt to discover 
Bruce failed. And so with our sins. 
Steadily they pursue us, and the only 
way to free ourselves is to plunge 
into the cleansing fountain of 
Christ's blood, where we shall be 
made whiter than snow. The blood 
of Christ is a saving stream. 

68. Christ, His Finished Work. 

See Works, Not of. 

69. Christ, His Readiness to 
Deliver. When in February, 1909, 
the Florida struck the Republic, J. 
R. Binns, the Marconi operator of 
the Republic, was engaged in_ sending 
a commercial message. He instantly 
broke into it with the symbol, 
'*C. Q." Every wireless operator 
who heard the letters immediately 
stilled his instrument and was all 
attention, for these letters meant that 
a message of world importance was 
to follow. Another instant and there 
was added the awful symbol, "D" 
(Danger). Then came the location 
of the endangered ship. The cry 
was speedily sent flying from the 
more powerful land instruments over 
land and sea. The result was that 
of which dreamers had dreamed. 
Turning without thought of the al- 
most accomplished goal of her long 
journey, the Baltic puts back to sea 
at top speed. The Lorraine swings 
out of her course on the same mis- 
sion of mercy, and the far-distant 
Lucania signals that she is on the 
way to the relief of the imperiled. 



40 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



The prayer has been answered. Man 
has had a new experience. Mys- 
terious Spirit has again asserted it- 
self master of matter. So Christ 
stands ready to deliver souls in dis- 
tress. 

70. Christ, Look At. Sir Joshua 
Reynolds used to say, "I only look 
at the best pictures. A bad one 
spoils my eye." The more we look 
at Christ the more shall we become 
like Christ. 

71. Christ, Made King. See 
Loyalty to Christ. 

72. Christ, Our Friend. "This 
man receiveth sinners, and eateth 
with them." Luke 15:2. A recent 
magazine article on the "Big Brother 
Movement" tells of a boy sent to the 
House of Refuge, and therefore at- 
tending the school at that institution. 
One day, in one of the classes, he was 
asked to spell the word "friend." The 
letters came slowly, "F-r-i-e-n-d," 
and then the teacher asked, "What 
does the word mean?" The little 
fellow studied for a moment for a 
way to express his thought. "Oh," 
he said, "he's a feller that knows 
all about ye, an' likes ye just the 
same." It was the highest thing in 
friendship his brief life had taught 
him. That is the wonderful tie that 
binds us to our Friend in heaven. 
He knows it all, the mistakes, the 
falls, the disloyalty, the far wander- 
ings, and still he cares. The Elder 
Brother is the need of all the earth. 
He will be your friend and mine. 
He knows all about us and yet he 
loves us. — H. 

73. Christ, Present Him as 
Saviour. Said Bishop W. F. Mc- 
Dowell before the first national con- 
vention of Methodist men: "I would 
not cross the street to give India a 
new theology. India has more the- 
ology than it can understand. ^ I 
would not cross the street to give 
China a new code of ethics ; China 
has a vastly better code than ethical 
life. I would not cross the street 
to give Japan a new religious liter- 
ature, for Japan has a better religious 
literature than rehgious life. But I 
would go around the world again, 
and yet again, if it pleased God, to 
tell India and China and Africa and 
the rest of the world — 



"There is a fountain filled with 
blood, 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 
And sinners plunged beneath tiiat 
flood 
Lose all their guilty stains.*" 

74. Christ, Robbing. A minister 
conversed with a man who professed 
conversion. "Have you united with 
the church?" he asked him. "No, 
the dying thief never united with 
the church and he went to heaven," 
was the answer. "Have you talked 
with your neighbors about Christ?" 
"No, the dying thief never did." 
"Have you given to missions ?" "No, 
the dying thief did not." "Well, my 
friend," said the minister, "the differ- 
ence between you two seems to be 
that he was a dying thief, and you 
are a living one." 

75. Christ, Saving Love of. It 

is said that when Edward I of Eng- 
land was wounded with a poisoned 
arrow, his wife Eleanor put her 
mouth to the wound, and thus risked 
her own life, to extract the poison. 
But the love of Christ was deeper 
than this when he knew that he was 
risking all that he had, and yet did 
not fear to invest it all in order 
that he might bring us unto God. 

76. Christ, Soldiers Confessing. 
One Sunday afternoon I had a serv- 
ice for a great crowd of men about 
eight miles from the front line. 
They were moving that day to the 
front lines to go into battle. I had 
tried to get some War Roll Cards, 
but there were none in that section. 
I had only one left in my pocket. 
After talking to the men, and sing- 
ing for them, I told them about the 
War Roll Card. Then I told the 
Captain in charge of these men that 
I would give him the one I had, and 
any fellow who wanted to do so could 
make a copy of it, sign it, and we 
would be glad to send it in for him. 
The Captain took the little card, 
looked it over, took me off to one 
side and said, "Mr. Rodeheaver, if 
you don't mind, I'd like to sign this 
card myself. I have a wife and two 
babies back in the southland, and a 
dear old father and mother there. 
They all belong to the Church — ^they 
have always wanted me to join them, 
but, like so many men, I have simply 
put it off. I am going into battle 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 41 



to-morrow, and of course we never 
know what is going to happen. I 
would like the folks at home to have 
the satisfaction of knowing that I 
accepted this proposition and signed 
this War Roll Card." 

That was the feeling of thousands 
of men in France who had no chance 
of signing a War Roll Card. — 
Homer A. Rodeheaver. 

77. Christ, the Captain of Our 
Salvation. It was a high tribute 
that Major-General Beaumont B. 
Buck paid to the American troops, 
in an interview published in the New 
York World, when he said : "And 
this prominent fact stands out. No 
American unit ever lost a foot of 
ground gained. That is, in the 
wavering during a battle^ fractions of 
the line might yield at times, but the 
Americans always stuck at the end 
of the battle, to the furthest point 
they ever reached." 

That is the kind of fighting that 
wins. And, in infinitely greater de- 
gree, it is true that the Captain of 
our salvation never lost a foot of 
ground that he has gained in his 
fighting in behalf of all who will 
believe on him. With him, more- 
over, there is never even any waver- 
ing during a battle, never any yield- 
ing at times ; but always an omnipo- 
tent, impregnable, undefeatable hold- 
ing of all that he has won, and a 
steady pushing on toward the tri- 
umphant completion. "For I know 
him whom I have believed, and I 
am persuaded that he is able to 
guard that which I have committed 
unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 
1 : 12). "He who began a good work 
in you will perfect it until the day 
of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).— C. G. 
Trumbull. 

78. Christ, the Great Oculist. 

Evangelist Wharton saw a man on 
a train so nervous and anxious, rest- 
less in his seat, getting up and gaz- 
ing from window to window, that he 
had to ask him, "What is the trouble? 
Anything I can do for you?" The 
man said: "I've been to Cincinnati; a 
great oculist has operated on my 
eyes. I never saw my wife, or either 
of my four children. I was born 
blind. The next station is my town; 
they will all be there to see me." 

Mr. Wharton watched him alight 
— saw a woman approach and throw 



her arms about him, and four young- 
sters crowding near for a kiss of 
greeting. Above all the racket inci- 
dent to the arrival of the train he 
heard the stranger, looking skyward, 
say, "Thank God! I can see, can see 
my wife and my babes !" 

May the Great Oculist grant to 
"open the eyes of the blind" that they 
may see and cry, "Whereas I was 
blind, now I can see, can see my 
Father, my Brother, my brethren and 
my sisters." 

79. Christ the Only Way. A 

man recently gave directions to an- 
other who stopped to ask him the 
way to a certain street. "That's the 
best way, is it?" asked the inquirer 
a little doubtfully. "It is the only 
way," was the quick answer. "The 
other road will lead you back where 
you started." — Sunday-School Times. 

ao. Christ, the Source of 
Strength. Christ's promise to be 
with hirn is the source of strength 
with which a young Christian may 
start out or an older one continue. 

A soldier, wounded some kilo- 
meters north of Chateau Thierry, in 
July, 1918, was asked in a field hos- 
pital what vivid impression the battle 
had left with him, and answered : 
"Well, I was mighty lonely." His 
company had advanced in open for- 
mation, and that placed each man 
by himself. They had to pass 
through a fairly thick wood, where 
the trees separated the men. They 
had worn their gas masks most of 
the time — further isolating each man 
from his neighbors. This man had 
fallen with three machine-gun bullets 
in his right leg and one in his left 
arm, and every comrade he knew 
had gone forward, leaving him to 
Wait anxiously, wondering if the 
bearers would ever come out and 
pick him up. In telling his experi- 
ence, he added, somewhat embar- 
rassed at saying what meant so much 
to him: "I tell you it was good to 
feel that you had a Friend that stick- 
eth closer than a brother." 

Once during the wars between the 
Spanish and the French, the Span- 
iards, who were investing their foes, 
sent an insulting note to the French 
commander General Coligny: "Sur- 
render! We are more numerous 
than you." And General Coligny 
wrote his reply on a piece of paper 



42 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



and fastened it to an arrow and shot 
it into the Spanish camp. It read: 
"Surrender? Never! We have a 
king with us." When we are 
tempted to surrender because of Sa- 
tan's overwhehning attacks, we can 
fling back the same proud and de- 
fiant answer, "We have a King with 



8i. Christ the Way. It is said 
that the ancient city of Troy had 
but one entrance, and from whatever 
direction the travelers approached the 
city they could not enter except 
through that one legally appointed 
entrance. There is but one way that 
will lead us into the presence of God, 
that is Christ. "I am the way, and 
no man cometh unto the Father but 
by me." "So walk ye" in that way. 

82. Christ, the Way Through. A 

distinguished artist lately, speaking 
to some students on artistic compo- 
sition, declared it to be a wrong 
thing pictorially to have a picture 
of woodland or forest without show- 
ing a path leading out of it. When 
the true artist paints a landscape he 
invariably gives some suggestions of 
a path which can carry the eye out 
of the picture. Otherwise the tangle 
of trees and undergrowth would suf- 
focate us, or the wide, trackless 
spaces dismay us. So God ever pro- 
vides a Way of escape for his chil- 
dren. — Sunday at Home. 

83. Christ, Turning from. G. 
F. Watts' famous picture illustrating 
"For he had great possessions" is 
familiar to every one. The artist 
gave this account of the rich young 
ruler : "I am doing a man's back — 
little else but his back to explain 
'He went away sorrowful, for he 
had great possessions.' " Fancy a 
man turning his back on Christ rather 
than give away his goods ! They 
say his back looks sorry. 

84. Christ, Vision of. A sailor 
had been ashore on leave of absence 
and returned at night partially intox- 
icated. The ship was connected with 
the wharf by only a narrow plank 
about a foot wide, and when he at- 
tempted to walk over it he slipped 
and fell, but succeeded in seizing 
hold of the plank. The fright so- 
bered him and he felt the plank 
move; but after a quiver or two it 



stood fast and he hung suspended 
over the water. He was afraid to 
move lest he should bring both plank 
and himself down into the water. 
He shouted for help, but there came 
no reply. Then there came to his 
mind the text of a sermon he had 
heard at the Seaman's Bethel, "After 
death the judgment." The beads of 
perspiration were breaking out on 
his forehead from fear of death and 
what should follow. In that awful 
moment there flashed before him, 
direct from heaven it seemed, a 
vision of Christ the Saviour, and 
in his heart he accepted him. Im- 
mediately there came the message 
that brought peace to his guilty soul. 
He knew that God had saved him, 
that he had passed from death unto 
life. All his anguish and fear of 
death passed away. But God had 
work for this man to do yet. Lights 
began to move on the wharf and he 
was discovered and rescued. He has 
ever since blessed God or that timely 
rescue, not only from drowning, but 
from spiritual death, and has striven 
ever since to make known to others 
the good news that Jesus loves and 
saves. 

85. Christ, Waiting Our Will. 

A man once stopped a preacher in 
a street of London, and said: "I 
once heard you preach in Paris, and 
you said something which I have 
never forgotten, and which has, 
through God, been the means of 
my conversion." "What was that?" 
said the preacher. "It was that the 
latch was on our side of the door. 
I had always thought that God was 
a hard God, and that we must do 
something to propitiate him. It was 
a new thought to me that Christ was 
waiting for me to open to him." 
The latch is on our side. 

86. Christian, a Follower of 
Christ. A gentleman followed by 
a rough-looking dog got into a car 
in Edinburgh. The dog followed the 
car in the face of many obstacles. 
Soon after another dog came up bent 
on a quarrel; afterward, another yet 
more determined ; then a third and 
a fourth. He took no notice, but 
continued to follow his master — only 
following and looking up. What a 
lesson he taught us! His one object 
was to follow his master, and this he 
did faithfully. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 43 



87. Christian, Becoming a. A 

woman once came to Mr. Moody and 
said: "Mr. Moody, I would like to 
become a Christian, but I am so 
hard-hearted.'* He replied: "My 
good woman, did the Master say : 
*You soft-hearted people, come?' 
Nothing of the kind. He said: 
'Come unto me' — all black hearts, 
vile hearts, corrupt hearts, deceitful 
hearts — 'all.' If your heart is hard, 
who will soften it? You can't. The 
harder the heart the more need there 
is for the Saviour ; so come along and 
get rest. If you can't come as a 
saint, come as a sinner; if you can't 
run, walk; if you can't walk, creep 
to him; but come." 

The woman saw the force of 
Moody's words, and went away much 
comforted. In a few days she gave 
her hard heart to Christ. 

88. Christian, Becoming One. 

See Christ, Coming to. 

89. Christian, How to Become. 

A sleeping-car porter, so it is said, 
was asked on one occasion by Dr. 
Pentecost if he did not intend some 
time to become a Christian. To this 
question he made the prompt reply, 
"Oh, yes, doctor, but I dreads de 
process." 

There are more people than one 
would at first suppose who would 
really like to become Christians, but 
who think that the process is a hard 
and mysterious one. They are not 
Christians because they do not know 
how to enter the Christian life. Un- 
fortunately there are also many Sun- 
day-school teachers and other Chris- 
tian workers who do not know how 
to explain to young people and 
others the way into the Christian life. 

A girl came to the superintendent 
of a city Sunday-school on one occa- 
sion, and asked him what she should 
do to become a Christian. The su- 
perintendent replied, "My good girl, 
just go around to the Rescue Mission, 
and they will tell you there what 
to do." 

As a matter of fact the way to be- 
come a Christian is so plain that it 
can be understood. To become a 
Christian all a person has to do is 
to start and follow Christ. The way 
to become a farmer is to begin to 
till the soil, and the way to become 
a pianist is to begin to take music 
lessons. In like manner the way to 



become a Christian is to go to school 
to Jesus Christ, to find out what he 
wishes us to do, and then do it. 
The doing is the important thing. 
As Jesus said to Philip, "Follow 
Me," so to every one in our age 
he says, "Follow Me." This means, 
to put the matter very practically, 
that in all matters we are to ask, 
"What would Jesus have me do?" 
Then we are to go forward steadily 
along the path which we feel he 
would want us to travel. — Rev. J. 
Elmer Russell. 

90. Christian, How to Become a. 

A little girl was playing in her yard 
when she fell down a cistern. Her 
mother, who was near, quickly res- 
cued" her. Narrating her experience 
to a young friend, she was heard to 
say, in response to a question 
whether she was not frightened: 
"No, indeed ; mamma told me to put 
my hands up as far as I could, and 
she reached down and did the rest." 
That is all Goa requires of us — to 
reach up the hands of faith as far 
as we can, and leave him to com- 
plete his perfect work. 

91. Christian, How to Become a. 

See Promises, Belief in Saves. 

92. Christian, How to Become a. 

Coming to Jesus is the desire of 
the heart after him. It is to feel 
our sin and misery, to believe that 
he is able and willing to pardon, com- 
fort and save us, to ask him to help 
us and to trust in him as in a friend. 
To have just the same feelings and 
desires as if he were visibly present, 
and we came and implored him to 
bless us, is to come to him though 
we do not see his face nor hear his 
voice. Repenting sinner ! Your very 
desire for pardon, your prayer, 
"Jesus, save me, I perish," this is 
coming to him. 

93. Christian, How to Become a. 

It is a very simple thing to be a 
Christian, so simple that a little 
child can quickly meet the condi- 
tions. They are these: 

First, frankly recognize, as you do, 
that you are a sinner, — that you have 
sinned. God declares this of all of 
us. "All have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). 
"Whosoever shall keep the whole 
law, and yet offend in one point, 
he is guilty of all" (James 2:10). 



44 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



"If we say that we have. not sinned, 
we make him a liar" (1 John 1: 10). 

Second, in view of the result of 
your sin, recognize that you need a 
Saviour, for "the wages of sin is 
death" (Rom. 6:23).— that is, not 
mere physical death, but the second 
death. 

Third, tell God that you know that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and, 
by his death, the Saviour of men. 
God gives you his Word for this. 
"This is my beloved Son" (Matt. 
1:17). "God commendeth his love 
toward us" (Rom. 5:8). "He is 
able to save to the uttermost them 
that come unto God by him" (Heb. 
7:25). "Neither is there salvation 
in any other ; for there is none other 
name under heaven given among men, 
whereby we must be saved" (Acts 
4:12). 

Fourth, tell Jesus that you want 
him to save you ; that you give your- 
self to him to be saved; and that 
you accept him as your Saviour. 
Do this on the strength of these 
words of God : "God ^ so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life" (John 3:16). "Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). 

Finally, thank Jesus that he has 
saved you, because he says, "Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, He that hear- 
eth my word, and believeth on him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, 
and shall not come into condemna- 
tion ; but is passed from death unto 
life" (John 5:24). "He that believ- 
eth on the Son hath everlasting life" 
(John 3:26). — Sunday-School Times. 

94. Christian, How to Become a. 

The first step is to give up sin, and 
trust Christ to save you from it. 
Then begin the Christian life in a 
humble and trusting way, as the 
child begins the alphabet at school. 
Don't look for marvels. Don't ex- 
pect to see visions. Don't ask for 
raptures, but ask expectantly for 
power to live in a way to please God. 
Believe that the Spirit of Christ will 
come into your heart, and cause you 
to love God and delight in his will; 
not because you feel happy, but be- 
cause you are definitely trusting him 
to do what he has said he will do. 
He says that if you will forsake your 
sins he will blot them out, and give 



you his Holy Spirit. Believe it, and 
accept salvation as his free gift. He 
says he will enable you to live as 
a child of God should. Beheve him 
and undertake it. He says he will 
help you to bear your troubles. Trust 
him and try him. He says he will 
give you strength for labor, courage 
for conflict, power to resist tempta- 
tion, and grace sufficient for your 
every-day need. Take him at his 
word, and you will soon know for 
yourself how blessed it is to trust 
and obey. Commit yourself to the 
new life you have undertaken to 
live by uniting with the church of 
your choice, and then take your 
duties as they come, and perform 
them in a way you believe will please 
God. Read your Bible daily, and 
bring your life into line with what 
it teaches, and your doubts will soon 
be gone. 

95. Christian Life, Begin Young. 

See Young Christians. 

96. Christian, Pledged to Christ 
for Life. See Pledged, for Life. 

97. Christians, Pupils of Christ. 

We should be very glad that we are 
Christ's disciples. When students of 
music or of art spend a time with 
some great composer or master in 
Europe they are very proud when 
they come home to announce them- 
selves as his pupils. They put it on 
their advertisements and announce- 
ments and on their professional 
cards. We should regard it as a 
high honor to tell people that we 
are pupils of Christ. — J. R. Miller, 
D.D, 

98. Christian, Secretly a. See 

Discipleship, Secret. 

99. Christians, Extraordinary. 

King's children are never ordinary. 
Or if they are, they ought not to be. 
No one who followed the accounts 
of the young Prince of Wales' jour- 
neyings around the world would call 
him ordinary. He is extraordinary 
in many ways: by birth, the son of 
a king; by heredity, by charm, by 
gifts and talents, by natural and ac- 
quired graces he stands out from 
among ordinary people wherever he 
goes. And this is just what one 
would expect of a prince. What, 
then, about ordinary Christians? 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 45 



The Rev. F. S. Webster, of the Kes- 
wick Convention, has said: "There 
are so few people who are really 
keen upon being extraordinarily de- 
voted and Christ-like, and you hear 
them say with perfect complacency, 
T do not pretend to be a saint, I 
am quite content to be an ordinary 
Christian.' But is God quite content 
that you should be what you call 
an ordinary Christian? Is not any 
Christian, if a real Christian, the ob- 
ject of extraordinary love, the heir 
of extraordinary grace? Is not 
every true Christian bound to be 
an extraordinary character?" The 
simple fact, which we may not like 
to admit, is that the ordinary Chris- 
tian is a sinning Christian, one who 
is denying and wounding his royal 
Father who has blessed him "with 
every spiritual blessing in the heav- 
enly places in Christ," and who is 
eagerly ready and able to make his 
life, moment by moment, a convinc- 
ing and captivating exhibit^ of the 
royal blood that flows in his veins. 
The son of a king, if a true son, is 
to be like the king himself ; and so 
God offers to enable us to say that 
"as he is, even so are we in this 
world." — Sunday-School Times. 

100. Christians, Half-and-Half. 
Some people are like the old apple 
tree in my father's back-yard. It 
was situated directly on the line be- 
tween my father's lot and our neigh- 
bor's. When the apples were ripe 
they would fall on both lots, and it 
was a question whose apples they 
were. Most of them would fall 
whichever way the wind blew. — A. J. 
Elliot. 

loi. Christians, Long-faced a 
Hindrance. Revivals are not 
brought to pass by long-faced, 
mournful Christians. The overflow- 
ing joy of those in whom Christ's 
joy is being made full is a sure 
pathway to a revival. And this joy 
ought to be as great while the re- 
vival seems hopelessly at a distance 
as after it has blessedly come to 
pass. Rev. W. A. Sunday startled 
some Christians when he said, "The 
man who has to be in a revival to 
be happy has a leak in his faith 
somewhere." Perhaps you need to 
think that over, and to ask God's 
forgiveness for letting your own 
sinful unhappiness at the lack of a 



revival block the very revival that 
you were praying for. 

102. Christians, Only Half- 
hearted. Off Cape Horn we wit- 
nessed a singular sight. For some 
miles there was a narrow strip of 
water, where the great waves flew 
in broken sprays and dashed high 
over the ship. On either side the 
sea was comparatively calm, whilst 
this boiled with fury, rolling and 
surging. Yet there was no rock about 
which the sea surged, nor was there 
any such fierce wind as to account 
for it. Overhead the air was thick 
with sea-fowl. Thousands of birds 
dived into this troubled water. The 
smaller fish were, I suppose, flung 
up by the toss and thus fell a prey 
to the birds. I asked naturally what 
was the reason of this strange sight, 
and found it was the point at which 
the tide met the strong current of 
the sea, and here they raged together. 
Within, the tic"" only ran, and it was 
calm. On this troubled bit they met 
and neither prevailed. It is the pic- 
ture of those who are at once too 
religious to belong to the world — too 
worldly to belong to religion; torn 
by both and satisfied by neither. — 
Mark Guy Pearse. 

103. Church, Added to. Sixty, 
forty, thirty years in a Christian 
community, and still waiting for the 
first personal invitation from pastor 
or people to confess Christ and unite 
with the church. People wondering 
whether they were really wanted. 

That's what was revealed by a lit- 
tle personal work that added thirty- 
five members to a little country 
church, a gain of nearly forty per 
cent on its resident membership. 

104. Church, Being Outside. A 

writer in the Messenger tells the fol- 
lowing: The best illustration that I 
ever heard, showing the disadvan- 
tage of living a Christian life out- 
side of the church, was given me by 
a young convert whom I had re- 
cently received into our church. I 
expressed my pleasure in the step 
he had taken when he replied : *T had 
not made up my mind to join when 
I came to the meeting to-night, but 
while you were talking, I thought it 
was just like buying a ticket to Chi- 
cago, and then riding on the platform. 
I thought I might as well go inside." 



46 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



105. Church, Duty of Joining. 

Some keep out of the church because 
they say they are not good enough 
for it, but no one is good enough 
for it. We join the church because 
we are not good enough, because we 
are sinners and need a Saviour, be- 
cause we are weak and need the 
help of the church, and because each 
of us is but one and needs to co- 
operate with others in order to ac- 
comphsh his best work. — Rev. R. P. 
Anderson. 

106. Church, Duty of Joining. 

Some say that they are afraid to 
join the church because they might 
bring discredit upon it by their bad 
actions; but by remaining outside 
the church they do what they can 
to discredit it, virtually saying to the 
world that they do not consider it 
worth joining. — A. 

107. Church Members, How 
Counted. A gentleman was trav- 
eling in England on a coaching trip. 
Sitting on the box with the driver 
he noticed one of the leaders that 
seemed to be shirking his part of 
the work. "That horse does not 
seem to draw much," he remarked 
to the driver. "Not an inch, sir," 
was the reply. "Why do you have 
him, then?" "Well, you see, sir, 
this here's a four-horse coach, and 
he counts for one of 'em." The early 
disciples were fishers of men ; are 
we? Or do we shirk the work and 
count only in the dress-parade ? 

108. Church, Not in the. See 

Parasitism. 

109. Church, Persuading; to 
Join. There is a strange tribe of 
natives in Africa. It is said that they 
never count. They know nothing of 
arithmetic. A gentleman asked one 
of them how many oxen he had. 
**Don't know," replied the 'native. 
"Then how do you know if one or 
two are missing?" The reply was 
striking and beautiful. "Not because 
the number would be less, but be- 
cause of a face that I would miss." 
Is yours the missing face of the 
flock?— H. 

no. Church, Rooted in. There 

is said to be a very odd tree in an 
orchard near Milwaukee. It is an 
old apple tree that was planted 



twenty-eight years ago, with its 
limbs in the ground and its roots in 
the air. It still lives to bear an oc- 
casional apple and to sprout and bear 
branches where roots should be and 
roots where twigs and leaves should 
be; but it is really of no use, except 
as a curiosity to beholders. The 
farmer was induced to make the 
trial through an old German legend, 
in which such an inverted tree played 
an important part. So we say the 
people who try to live Christian lives 
without being planted in the Chris- 
tian Church, and letting their roots 
run down into the responsibilities 
of church life, are very much like 
that inverted tree. The Christians 
who really bear fruit are those who 
are rooted deep and solid in the gar- 
den of the Lord. 

111. Church, Welcoming Sin- 
ners. See Sinners Saved, What 
Kind? 

112. Clerk, or Salesman. The 

difference between a salesman and 
a clerk is that the salesman finds 
customers while customers must find 
the clerk. In business for God are 
you a salesman or a clerk? Must 
sinners find you or do you find them ? 
Does your church find men or must 
men find your church? One good 
salesman is worth a dozen clerks. 
In business for God, which are you, 
salesman or clerk? — H. 

113. Come, Say It. In the des- 
erts, when caravans are in want of 
water, they send a rider some dis- 
tance ahead ; then, after a little space, 
another follows; and then, at a short 
distance, another. As soon as the 
first man finds water, before he 
stoops to drink, he shouts aloud, 
"Come!" The next one repeats the 
word, "Come!" ^ So the shout is 
passed along until the whole wilder- 
ness echoes with the word, "Come!" 

114. Compromise, Not Accepta- 
ble. When Nelson was asked by 
his friend, Hardy, to^ put on a cloak 
to hide his stars which made him a 
mark for the French sharpshooters, 
who were huddled in the rigging of 
the man-of-war, he answered, "No ; 
in honor I got them, in honor will 
I wear them, in honor I will die 
with them, if need be." And the 
sun glittered on those stars, and Nel- 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 47 

and said softly in her ear: "My 
mamma will never hear the last of 
you." 

Let us confess Christ out of grati- 
tude for his saving work for us. 



son became a mark for the foe. 
Duty to Christ is the way to glory. 
Do not fling on the cloak of com- 
promise, and in a sneaking way hide 
the uniform that you wear as a 
child of God. Let it be seen by 
men, by angels, by devils. "Put on 
Christ," says Paul. Let him be your 
uniform, your livery, your lodestar 
that will lead you home. 

115. Confess Christ. See Com- 
promise Not Acceptable. 

116. Confess Christ. Many busi- 
ness firms have what are called si- 
lent partners. These partners are 
interested in the firm, but they do 
not work for it, do not come to busi- 
ness, and very often are not known 
to the public at all. A business man 
once came to a preacher and said 
that he wished to become a Chris- 
tian, but he wished to be a silent 
partner, that is, he did not wish any 
to know that he was a Christian. 
The preacher said that Jesus has no 
silent partners. If one comes to 
him it must be openly. We must 
confess him, tell others that we be- 
long to him, and work for him. — 
Rev. R. p. Anderson. 

117. Confess Christ at Once. A 

young Christian, who had lately ac- 
cepted Christ as his Saviour, was 
talking with J. Hudson Taylor, the 
missionary. The young man seemed 
reluctant to make a public profession 
before he had learned more about 
his new Master. 

"Well," said Mr. Taylor, "I have 
a question to ask you. When_ you 
light a candle, do you light it to 
make the candle more comfortable?" 

"Certainly not," said the other, "but 
in order that it may give more 
light." 

"When does it first become useful 
— when it is half burned down?" 

"No; as soon as I light it." 

"Very well," said the missionary 
promptly; "go thou and do likewise; 
begin at once." 

118. Confess Christ, Because of 
Gratitude. It is told of one of the 
children in a New York hospital, 
who had been under the care of one 
nurse for a long time, that when 
the little fellow found out that he 
was to go home cured, he put his 
arm around the neck of the nurse, 



119. Confessing Christ. See 
Christ, Confession of. 

120. Confessing Christ. A young 
man was run over by the cars. The 
surgeons in the hospital told him 
both legs must be amputated. The 
chances were largely against his re- 
covery and he was told that if he 
had anything he wished to say he 
had better speak at once. Several 
of the surgeons were not only not 
Christians, but inclined to be anti- 
Christian. It was a scene full of 
pathos. The young man's face was 
contracted with pain, but he nerved 
himself to say: "My mother has long 
begged me to confess Christ openly; 
I have never a^ne so. I regret be- 
yond all words to express that I 
have neglected it so long, and I 
wish here and now to declare my- 
self a soldier of the cross, and to 
express my faith in Christ and what 
he has wrought for us by his death 
and resurrection. I lift up my heart 
to him that he may prepare me for 
whatever comes." Among all those 
men standing about him, accustomed 
to scenes of pain and sorrow, there 
was not one whose eyes did not fill 
with tears at the young man's loy- 
alty to God and his mother. 

121. Confessing Christ, at 
School. Miss Havergal tells of 
going away to a^ boarding school 
shortly after she joined the church. 
When she entered the school she 
found that she was the only Chris- 
tian among one hundred girls. Her 
first feeling was that she could not 
confess Christ before gay and 
worldly companions. Then the 
thought came, "I am the only one he 
has here." The thought strength- 
ened, and she was rewarded for her 
courage. — Sunday School Chronicle. 

122. Confessing Christ, Avoided. 
See Christ, Ashamed of. 

123. Confessing Christ in Bap- 
tism. See Baptism, Meaning of. 

124. Confessing Christ Before 
Men. At a large, open-air meet- 



48 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



ing at Liverpool, a street-corner 
sceptic gave a strong address against 
Christianity, and at the close flung 
out the challenge, "If any man here 
can say a word for Jesus Christ, let 
him come out and say it !" Not a 
man moved, but two young girls on 
the outskirts of the crowd pushed 
their way to the center and said : 
■"We can't speak, but we will sing 
for Christ ;" and they sang, "Stand 
up, stand up for Jesus." Every head 
in that crowd . was uncovered, and 
many men were smitten with shame. 
— Sunday at Home. 

125. Confessing Christ, Openly. 

Too many persons are represented 
by a lieutenant who had gone through 
many battles, during three years of 
war, without a scar, to be mortally 
wounded by the accidental discharge 
of a musket, whereupon he was 
brought to deplore the relinquish- 
ment of his profession. He had 
been an avowed Christian before he 
had joined the army, but did not 
display his colors there. When dy- 
ing, he sent for his fellow officers, 
told them his mistake, and asked their 
forgiveness. While dying he said, 
"Those three last years keep com- 
ing back upon me. I would like to 
forget them." 

126. Confessing Christ Through 
Love. Why should a man be re- 
quired to love^ Christ? Is it not 
enough to admire him as the chief- 
est among ten thousand? Is it not 
enough to imitate him as the ideal 
man? 

A traveler who was being rowed 
across the Mississippi by an old ne- 
gro was surprised to see the boat- 
man drop his oars suddenly and 
spring to his feet in great excite- 
ment, shouting, "Look! Look! 
Dere's de captain !" On a sloop 
coming down the river stood a man 
leaning against the mast. This ,/as 
"the Captain," at whom the old ne- 
gro was frantically waving his hat. 

The traveler said presently, "Who 
is this man? And what has he ever 
done for you?" The answer was, 
"He's de man dat saved me. I fell 
into de water an' he jumped in an' 
flung his arms around me and saved 
me!" Then he added, "I'd jes' like 
to slave for him all my life; only 
my rheumatism's so bad I ain't no 
good. He runs by here once a 



month, an' I watch for him, an' I 
love to p'int him out. Ain't he de 
kindest lookin' man you ever saw ? I 
jes' love to p'int him out." 

In view of such a natural demon- 
stration of gratitude as this, one is 
led to wonder how it is that any 
man who trusts in Christ for salva- 
tion should ever fail to love him. — 
Rev. David James Burrell, D.D. 

127. Confession by Life and 
Look. Jesus expects us to con- 
fess him by our general demeanor as 
well as by our words. It is said that 
when Robert Murray McCheyne died 
there was found on his desk an un- 
opened letter which proved to be 
from a man who wrote that he was 
converted, not by anything Mr. Mc- 
Cheyne had said, but "by your look, 
sir, as you entered the pulpit." 

128. Confession, of Christ. The 
Rev. George F. Pentecost tells of a 
timid little girl, who wanted to be 
prayed for at a religious meeting in 
the south of London. She wanted to 
come to Jesus, and said to the Chris- 
tian man who was conducting the 
meeting: "Will you pray for me in 
the meeting, please? But do not 
mention my name." In the meeting 
which followed, when every head 
was bowed and there was perfect 
silence, the gentleman prayed for the 
little girl, and he said, "O Lord, 
there is a little girl who does not 
want her name known, but thou dost 
know her ; save her precious soul." 
There was stillness for a moment, 
and then way back in that congre- 
gation a little girl arose, and a plead- 
ing little voice said, "Please, it's me ; 
Jesus, it's me." She did not want 
to have a doubt. The more she had 
thought about it the hungrier her 
heart was for forgiveness. She 
wanted to be saved, and she was not 
ashamed to say, "Jesus, it's me." 

129. Confession of Christ, a 
Quiet. See Example, Of Good 
Confession. 

130. Confession of Christ, by 
Soldiers. See Christ, Soldiers Con- 
fessing. 

131. Confession of Christ, Out 
and Out. At West Point, three 
flags are used on the high flagpole 
at the north end of the parade 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 49 



ground. One is the storm flag, about 
eight by four feet; the other is the 
post flag, twenty by ten feet; and 
the third is the holiday flag, thirty- 
six by twenty. In bad weather the 
storm flag flies. Once a cadet's 
mother, interested in the Christian 
character and influence of her son, 
asked him if he kept his flag flying. 
"Yes, mother," he replied, "I keep 
my storm flag flying." She was sat- 
isfied with this reply, not knowing 
that it signified really that he was 
no more pronounced a Christian than 
he had to be. He flew his smallest 
flag. That is the way with some 
Christians. They don't want to 
abandon it altogether, but they don't 
fly any more colors than they can 
help. With some people, going to 
church once on Sunday is the extent 
of their open confession of Christian- 
ity. With others, it is that, and now 
and then a Christian utterance. But 
the kind of Christians Christ wants 
are the men and women, boys 
and girls, who will get out the biggest 
flag, and fly it before the world, 

132. Confession, of Christ. See 

Discipleship, Secret or Open. 

133. Confession of Christ. See 
Christ Confessed. 

134. Confession Strengthens. 

Seven years ago he was an outcast, 
friendless, homeless, the slave of' 
drink. But I heard him say, last 
night, that immediately on his con- 
version he began confessing his Sav- 
iour, and during all these seven 
years he has never failed, even in 
any mixed company, to acknowledge 
himself a Christian. Drink is under 
his feet, health is in his nerve and 
eye, hope is in his heart, heaven is 
his sure goal. Could he have stood 
so strongly had he been weak and 
laggard in the confession of his 
Lord? — Wayland Hoyt, D.D. 

135. Confession, Through Grati- 
tude. One of the distinguished 
ministers of the Presbyterian Church 
told in a conference in a western 
city, that a little boy who had been 
operated upon by Dr. Lorenz said, 
as soon as he came out from under 
the anesthetic, "It will be a long time 
before my mother hears the last of 
you, doctor." And then, said my 
friend, "I thought of an incident in 



my own life of a poor German boy 
whose feet were twisted out of shape, 
whose mother was poor, and could 
not have him operated upon, and I 
determined to bring him to a great 
doctor and ask him to take him in 
charge. The operation was over and 
was a great success. When the plas- 
ter cast had been taken off from his 
feet my friend said he went to take 
him home. He called his attention to 
the hospital, and the boy admired it, 
but he said, T like the doctor best.* 
He spoke of the nurses, and the boy 
was slightly interested, but said, 
'They are nothing compared to the 
doctor.' He called his attention to 
the perfect equipment of the hos- 
pital, and he was unmoved except, as 
again and again, he referred to the 
doctor. They reached the Missouri 
town and stepped out of the station 
together, and the old German 
mother was waiting to receive him. 
She did not look at her boy's face, 
nor at his hands, but she fell on her 
knees and looked at his feet, and then 
said, sobbing, Tt is just like any 
other boy's foot' Taken into her 
arms, the minister said all the boy 
kept saying to her, over and over, 
was, 'Mother, you ought to know 
the doctor that made me walk.' " — 
Christian Observer. 

136. Conquering to Save. There 
is a story of a young knight, brave, 
manly, strong, who was victorious 
over every foe. In every combat he 
was successful until he grew proud 
and self-confident. One day he went 
forth and stood before the gate of a 
great castle, and uttered his chal- 
lenge. There came out a knight in 
armor, and after a brief combat de- 
feated him. When the victor re- 
moved the armor he had worn, lo ! it 
was a woman, clad in spotless white. 
From henceforth she became the 
guide of the young man's life, lead- 
ing him to nobleness and glory. 

The story is an allegory. The 
white castle is the castle of truth. 
The white garment is the symbol of 
purity. Truth and purity are the 
qualities that give strength and vic- 
tory and blessing. We never can 
make anything truly worthy and no- 
ble of our life until we meet Christ 
and are defeated by him, brought to 
acknowledge him as our King and 
Master. He does not then show 
himself, however, as our enemy, but 



50 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



as our friend. Beneath the con- 
queror's armor we find the heart of 
love. He subdues us that he may 
save us. When we yield to him he 
becomes the guide of our life, lead- 
ing us on to nobleness and glory. — 
J. R. Miller, D.D. 

137. Consecrate Yourself. See 

Man, Each One Counts. 

138. Consecration. "Count on 
Me." A college student who was 
uninterested in art, was once per- 
suaded by his mother to visit an art 
gallery to view the painting of the 
"Man of Galilee." After viewing it 
from every angle, an attendant who 
had observed how earnestly and with 
what great interest he had studied 
the picture, said to him — "Great pic- 
ture, isn't it?" — ^Yes, it is a great 
picture and is well named the "Man 
of Galilee." 

Then the student again softly 
stepped up to the painting and said, 
"O man of Galilee, if I can, in any 
way, help you to do your work in 
the world, you can count on me" — 
"count on me." 

May there be a response in our 
hearts as we look to the Christ. 
Will he be able to count on us? 

139. Consecration, Full or Im- 
perfect? See Power, Men Trans- 
mit Imperfectly. 

140. Consecration. "Send Me." 

At the beginning of the Civil War, 
President Lincoln issued a call for 
75,000 volunteers. Patriots to the 
number of 300,000 responded. What 
an inspiration it must have been to 
the President, burdened as he was 
with the cares of State and the 
preparation for war, to find so many 
brave men who were willing to give 
their services and their lives for their 
country ! In the great world contest 
between good and evil, God never 
needed brave, intelligent fighters more 
than at the present moment. While 
the dark places of both foreign and 
home lands are calling loudly for 
help, may each of us gladly respond 
to the call of the Great Commander- 
in-Chief for volunteers by saying, 
"Here am I; send me." — H. A. Gra- 
ham. 



Lake Itasca, and, scarcely thinking 
of what he is doing, step across a 
tiny stream near where it gushes out 
at a pretty spring among the rocks 
and turns toward the sunny South- 
land. 

Suppose he does not step across 
there, but walks on and on beside it, 
waiting for a better place or seeing 
no necessity of the step. And sup- 
pose that by and by he wants very 
much to be on the other side of the 
great Mississippi River ; will it not 
take a great deal of effort, and will 
not the crossing make a profound 
impression upon his mind? Yet once 
over, he will not be any more defi- 
nitely on the other side than had he 
stepped across the Itasca rivulet. 

Such is the crossing we call con- 
version, — when the heart of a man 
comes over to the side of the Great 
Leader. 

Early in life, owing to inheritance, 
home training, or Christian compan- 
ionship, it is an easy step. It is nat- 
ural ; it may be taken with eyes look- 
ing upward. But the farther he goes, 
the wider, deeper, and fiercer the 
current that divides. Crossing then 
takes struggle and will-power and 
courage; and when at last accom- 
plished, he has a sense of victory 
that forever abides in his conscious- 
ness. 

But even so, the mature or aged 
convert is no more on the other side 
than he who stepped lightly and light- 
heartedly over in the days of youth, 
who all these years has come walking 
serenely on toward the land, not of 
sunshine, but of Eternal Glory. — 
Lee McCrae. 

142. Conversion, Bible Means to. 

See Bible, Means to Conversion. 

143. Conversion Is Right About 

Face. A young soldier, who had 
led a careless, life, but had become 
afterward a Christian, described very 
well the change that had been 
wrought in him when he said — "Jesus 
Christ said to me, Right about face! 
And I heard and obeyed him in my 
heart." That is exactly what we call 
"conversion." It is a turning-about 
of the face — from the world to God. 
But with the face it is a turning also 
of the heart. — C. A. Salmond. 



141. Conversion. One may be 
walking through the woods above 



144. Conversion, Oh, What a 
Change. See Blindne.ss, Spiritual. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 51 



145. Conversion, of a Soldier. 

"You say, was I a Christian? Not 
me! I was wild and gonig to the 
devil," said the Canadian lad. "But 
one night I was wounded and lay in 
a deserted shell hole, shot through 
the thigh, and unable to move for 
fifteen hours. I was feeling for a 
cigarette in my pocket to ease the 
pam a bit, but all I could find was a 
little pocket Testament which some 
one had given me, but which I had 
never read. I managed to get it out 
and, thinking it might be my last 
hour, and that I might never be 
found, I started to read to try and 
forget my wound. I read the twenty- 
seventh chapter of Matthew, and, sir, 
that little book changed my life. I 
have read a chapter every day since 
then. I was picked up by the in- 
fantry and carried to a hospital. One 
night when I could not sleep for the 
pain, the nurse asked me if she could 
do anything for me, and I asked her 
to read the Bible to me. She said 
she had never read it in her life, 
and I said it was about time she 
began, if that was so. After she 
read it, she said it helped her, too. 
Yes, I say my prayers on my knees 
in the tent now. Another boy has 
joined me this week; and the lan- 
guage in the tent is getting better. 
I'm off to the front to-morrow to 
take my turn again. But I'm no 
longer alone up there in the trenches. 
It's different now." 

146. Conversion, of Children. 

See Children Becoming Christians. 

147. Conversion, of Prize Fight- 
er. See Preaching, By a Con- 
verted Prize Fighter. 

148. Conversion, the Change It 
Makes. See Religion, the Change 
It Makes. 

149. Convert, Importance of 
One. It had been a dull year in 
the church where Moffat was con- 
verted. The deacons finally said to 
the old pastor ; "We love you, pas- 
tor, but don't you think you had 
better resign? There hasn't been a 
convert this year." "Yes," he re- 
plied, "it has been a dull year — 
sadly dull to me. Yet I mind me 
that one did come, wee Bobby Mof- 
fat. But he so wee a bairn that I 
suppose it is not right to count him." 



A few years later Bobby came to the 
pastor and said, "Pastor, do you 
think that I could ever learn to 
preach? I feel within here some- 
thing that tells me that I ought to. 
If I could just lead souls to Christ, 
that would be happiness to me." The 
pastor answered, "Well, Bobby, you 
might; who knows? At least you 
can try !" He did try, and years later 
when Robert Moffat came back from 
his wonder work in Africa the King' 
of England rose and uncovered in 
his presence, and the British ParHa- 
ment stood as a mark of respect. 
The humble old preacher, who had 
but one convert, and who was so 
discouraged, is dead and forgot- 
ten, and yet that was the greatest 
year's work he ever did — and few 
have equaled it— Young People's 
Weekly. 

150. Convert, Sylvester Horn's 
Last. The tollowing touching 
story concerning the death of Rev. 
Sylvester Home, was told by one of 
the British delegates to the Pilgrim 
Tercentenary in Boston. This dele- 
gate was traveling on a St. Lawrence 
steamer on his way to the Council. 
Suddenly he remembered the tragic 
circumstances connected with the 
death several years ago of Mr. 
Home. Addressing the captain one 
day he asked, "Do you happen to 
remember. Captain, the death a few 
years ago on one of these St. Law- 
rence river boats of an English 
preacher named Sylvester Home?" 
The captain answered quietly but 
with deep feeling, "I certainly do. 
It was on this very boat." He then 
showed the English visitor the pre- 
cise spot where the saintly man fell. 
'T chanced to see him fall and ran 
toward him. He died instantly. 
His wife holding his head called out 
in agony, 'Are you dead ?' then turned 
to me, 'Captain, is my husband really 
dead?' I nodded yes and ordered 
some sailors to carry the body into 
my cabin. Corne on in, I want you 
to see the cabin." As the minister 
entered the captain's room he noticed 
a beautifully framed photograph of 
the deceased prophet. Then he re- 
sumed the story: "But when we 
brought his body into this cabin, 
that was not the end of the tale. 
Mrs. Home came in and immedi- 
ately kneeled down beside his body. 
She turned to me — 'Captain, you 



52 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



must kneel.' I was not a kneeling 
man — ^in fact, I was altogether in- 
dififerent to religion. But I hesi- 
tated only a second, then knelt. Her 
prayer was the simplest, most beau- 
tiful, most natural prayer I ever 
heard. She mentioned all the chil- 
dren by name, the church and vari- 
ous causes that had been dear to her 
husband's heart. Do you know, I 
have never been able to escape from 
that prayer. It brought me to Christ. 
I am now a professed Christian, and 
whenever I can I attend the little 
church of which I have become a 
member. I was Sylvester Home's 
last convert." 

151. Cost, Counting the. Two 

young soldiers were talking about 
the service of Christ. One of them 
said : "I can't tell you all that the 
Lord Jesus is to me. I do wish that 
you would enlist in his army." "I 
am thinking about it," answered his 
comrade, "but it means giving up 
several things; in fact, I am count- 
ing the cost." An officer passing at 
that moment heard the remark, and 
laying his hand on the shoulder of 
the speaker he said : "Young friend, 
you talk of counting the cost of 
following Christ ; but have you ever 
counted the cost of not following 
him?" For days that question rang 
in the ears of the young man, and 
he found no rest till he sought it at 
the feet of the Saviour of sinners, 
whose faithful soldier and servant 
he has now been for twenty-seven 
years. 

152. Crisis Moments in the Spir- 
itual Life. There are critical hours 
that come into every life. Some of 
these have to do with worldly mat- 
ters. "There is a tide in the affairs 
of men which, taken at its flood, 
leads on to fortune." If the astron- 
omer wishes to see the transit of 
Venus, after his months of prepara- 
tion there comes a critical hour when 
he must not sleep, but be awake and 
alert and watchful. There often 
comes a critical hour in sickness, as 
in a fever, when the life of the pa- 
tient depends on the watchfulness of 
the nurse and faithfulness in the ad- 
ministration of medicine. 

But let us not forget that there 
are critical hours in spiritual matters, 
also. This is especially true in the 
matter of the soul's salvation. One 



may be very near to the kingdom of 
God and yet not in it. — H. 

153. Cross, the Message of. In 

a sermon in Mansfield Chapel, Ox- 
ford, Dr. Selbie told this daring 
story: "There was a young French- 
man who loved a courtesan. This 
woman hated her lover's mother, and 
when in his passion he offered her 
any gift in return for her love, she 
answered, 'Bring me then your moth- 
er's bleeding heart' And he, in his 
madness, killed his mother, and 
plucking out her heart, hurried by 
night through the streets, carrying it 
to the cruel woman to whom he had 
given his soul. But as he went he 
stumbled, and fell, and from the 
bleeding heart came an anxious 
voice, 'My son, are you hurt?' Not 
even murder could kill that mother's 
love ; it lived on in the torn heart. 
And this is the message of the cross. 

154. Cross, the Way of. The 

parting of the ways is at the cross. 
From that point they deviate forever. 
I look up and read, "This way to 
heaven," "This way to the second 
death." Stop, O man, and think, if 
you are inclined to take the wrong 
road. 

"The ways diverge, 
I stand and look them o'er, 

And hot thoughts surge 
About my heart, the more 
I look at them, and yet I know 
I must choose one by which to go. 

Which shall it be? 
This one is flower-strewn; 

That one, I see. 

Is narrow and rock-hewn, 
Steep and forbidding, dark and grim, 
Yet Christ walked there. 

I'll walk with him." 

155. Danger, Becoming Aware 

of. Some years ago on the Irish 
Sea a terrible storm was raging. It 
was known that just off the coast a 
vessel was going to pieces. Suddenly 
two men, an old sea captain and his 
son, put out through the storm. 
Everybody tried to persuade them not 
to do so, for it seemed to be abso- 
lutely useless. Over the waves, 
which appeared almost mountain 
high, they pushed along, until at last, 
amid the cheers of the waiting 
throng, they returned with their lit- 
tle boat filled with those who had 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 53 



/ 



j^ien all but lost upon the ship. 
When the minister said to the old 
sea captain, "Why do you do this? 
Why take such a risk?" he answered, 
"I have been there myself, and I 
know the danger." It is because we 
have been there once in sin and now 
are redeemed by the precious blood 
■of Christ that we may say some- 
thing to those who are about us. — 
Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

156. Danger Signals. To test 
the attention paid to signals by their 
engineers, some of the officials of 
one of our great railways recently set 
the signal meaning "Stop and inves- 
tigate." Twenty-four trains went 
past it, their engineers paying no at- 
tention to it whatever. The twenty- 
fifth heeded it. How forcibly this 
may be applied to men's heedlessness 
of moral signals. Only the excep- 
tional man heeds them. 

157. Day, Importance of One. 

See Time, Redeeming the. 

158. Deaf to God's Call. See 

Call of God. 

159. Decide Now. See Call, the 
Last. 

160. Decision, a Stray Man's. 

He was a big-muscled college stud- 
ent, a member of the football squad, 
a kind-hearted fellow with a weak- 
ness for questionable "good-fellow- 
ship." I knew his mother was pray- 
ing for him, and she had asked me 
to do my best to lead him into the 
Christian life. One night after a 
revival service I said : "Sam, you 
ought to be a Christian." 
"I know it," he replied at once. 
_ Seeing that he really wanted to be- 
gin the better life, I talked with 
him briefly on the value of deciding 
at once. The next evening he made 
an open confession of his surrender 
to Christ. Later in a men's meeting 
I heard him say that it was the few 
personal words and the personal re- 
gard for his welfare that decided 
him. The last I heard from him, 
he was leading an earnest Christian 
life. 

161. Decision, Braces Thought. 

In a recent great revival, the evan- 
gelist. Dr. Biederwolf, called upon 
those who had become Christians be- 



tween the ages of ten and twenty to 
rise. The great maj ority of the Chris- 
tians present rose. Then a smaller 
number between twenty and thirty, 
and then on until in the forties and 
fifties and sixties hardly any at all. 
Those who had thought the longest 
over the matter had the least to show 
for it, and so it seems that there is 
a point beyond which thought ceases 
to be powerful and defeats itself. 
Decision braces up and invigorates 
thought even more than thought does 
decision. 

In Kipling's poem, "The Battle of 
Lung-Tung-Pen," the old sergeant 
tells how that battle would never have 
been fought or won or even com- 
menced had it been left to seasoned 
soldiers and their judgment. It was 
won by almost boys who were too 
green ^ to know the difficulties, and 
their ignorance was bliss. It is so 
in life. The best things are often 
done by those who do not know half 
the difficulties, ^nd do not want to 
know them until afterward. 

Beecher tells the story of a man 
who, in a night of terrible storm 
which had wrecked everything, had 
to cross a certain bridge. The bridge 
was half -wrecked, and in the dark- 
ness he could only grope his way foot 
by foot from one sound support to 
another and over yawning gaps 
around which he had to feel his way. 
At last, after weary efforts which had 
exhausted his strength, he reached 
the other side, and when the light 
came up and he looked back upon 
that wrecked structure and saw what 
dangers he had crossed he fainted 
away. Darkness had been his friend. 
By daylight he would never have 
started. It is better to faint at the 
end than at the beginning. 

There are glorious things that we 
dream of as far distant, and we might 
have some of them within fifteen 
minutes if we wanted to. There are 
good things we plan to do, but we 
think that things so good will require 
at least a year in order to do them. 
They could be best done this morn- 
ing. There is no guarantee about 
whether they can be done in a year. 
That is a very precarious matter. 
Most likely a year will render them 
impossible. 

So Christ comes and touches the 
stupor of our thoughts, and plunges 
us into the glow of action. What a 
relief! When we are facing, with 



54 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



dismay, another long, wearisome pe- 
riod of deliberation, canvassing of 
doubts and difficulties and fears and 
opposition, he lifts us into some 
quick, sane, joyous activity. He sets 
us on our feet and on our way. By 
nightfall we look back on actual 
things, either begun or wholly ac- 
complished. 

There are vital and important things 
waiting for us, and they must be 
seized suddenly or not at all. They 
are swift and passing. There are 
things which are best obtained by 
prolonged consideration, there are 
others which are not. How many of 
the great things in the history of 
God's chosen people were done at a 
stroke ! 

Shut the door on your thoughts. 
They have had their full share of 
your strength. The best that can 
come to you now is something done 
suddenly. God is all ready for such 
action on the part of men. — Sunday 
School Times. 

162. Decision, by Indian Girls. 

India has decision Sabbaths as well 
as America. We are told that on one 
such day thirty girls in Bengal signed 
the following stanza, which they can 
sing if they will to the air of "Just 
as I Am." Thus : 

"Just as I am, young, strong and 

free. 
To be the best that I can be 
For truth, and righteousness, and 
Thee, 
Lord of my life, I come." 

Fourteen of these girls have since 
been baptized and others are ready to 
take this step. 

163. Decision, Call to. See Call 
to Decision. 

164. Decision Day. Even those 
members of the church who are not 
directly connected with the Sunday 
School can do much for the success 
of Decision Day. They should join 
with the parents and Bible-school 
workers in especial prayer for God's 
blessing upon the efforts put forth 
in behalf of the children; they 
should be as solicitous for and as 
active in behalf of the spiritual wel- 
fare of the little ones in the house- 
hold of faith as they are for the 
physical and intellectual welfare of 
the children in their homes. 



165. Decision Day Hint. Hold 
your scholars to the main question — 
the character and claims of Christ. 
Always you can show them that de- 
ciding for Christ means trusting him 
for all things, the honest intention to 
obey him in all things, and saying 
this before men. 

166. Decision Delayed is a Riv- 
eted Nail. A laboring man, con- 
verted after a period of deep convic- 
tion, said to those around him, "Boys, 
what's the biggest wonder you ever 
saw ?" He repeated his question, and 
then said, "Oh, isn't it to see an old 
grey-haired sinner like me saved at 
the eleventh hour? Oh, you are 
young — ^you are in the early hours of 
life's day ! Come, it's far easier for 
you to get saved now than if you 
wait as I did. Oh, sin's a nail the 
devil drives into the heart ; and when 
it gets riveted it's hard to pull out." 

167. Decision, for Christ. The 

following entry was found in a boy's 
diary: "September 21, 19—. Made 
up my mind to-day to be a Christian. 
No fooling this time." There is a 
suggestion here for all who profess 
surrender to the blessed Lord. 

168. Decision, for Christ. The 

habit of indecision is one of the hard- 
est of all habits to overcome. A 
weak will weakens the whole life. 
Decision is needed to conquer any 
bad habit ; how much more the habit 
of indecision ! 

The only safety when we have 
anything that we should do is to do 
it at once. Every day's delay makes 
it harder to do. 

When we once decide for Christ, 
every other good decision is instantly 
made easier. No other decision is 
so economical of effort as that 



169. Decision, for Christ, Now. 

An old Scotch farmer had been ap- 
proached again and again by the local 
representative of a fire insurance 
company to protect his farm against 
fire. "Na, na!'_' the old man would 
reply, with a wise shake of his head. 
"Ma f airm 'ull nae gang on fire !" 
Then one fateful day the unex- 
pected happened. The neighbors were 
astonished to see the farmer racing 
up and down the village street in- 
stead of helping to put out the 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 55 



flames. As he ran he shouted: 
"Sandy! Sandy! Whaur's that in- 
surance chap? It's awfu' that ye 
canna find a body when ye' re needin' 
him!" That was no time to decide. 
The time for you to decide for 
Christ is now. — H. 

170. Decision, Importance of. 
See Character, Crises In. 

171. Decision, Immediate. The 

steamship Central America, on a 
voyage from New York to San Fran- 
cisco, sprung a leak in mid-ocean. 
A vessel seeing her signal of distress 
bore down toward her and the cap- 
tain of the rescue ship cried, "Let 
me take your passengers on board 
now." But it was night and the 
commander of the Central America 
feared to send his passengers away 
in the darkness, and, thinking they 
could keep afloat a while longer, re- 
pHed, "Lie by till morning." About 
an hour and a half later her lights 
were missed. All on board perished, 
because it was thought they could 
be saved better at another time. 
"Now is the accepted time." 

172. Decision, Instant. A young 
woman once refused to come to the 
Saviour, saying, "There is too much 
to give up." "Do you think God 
loves you?" "Certainly." "How 
much do you think he loves you?" 

She thought a moment and an- 
swered, "Enough to give his Son 
to die for me." "Do you think if 
God loved you, he will ask you to 
give up anything it is for your good 
to keep?" "No." "Do you wish to 
keep anything that is not for your 
good to keep?" "No." 

"Then you had better come to 
Christ at once." And she did. 

173. Decision, Instant. See Op- 
portunity, Now. 

174. Decision, Must Be Instantly 
Made. An aviator told me recently 
that when you loop the loop in an 
aeroplane it is necessary to move the 
control stick in just the right direc- 
tion when you get to the point where 
you are upside down, in order to 
complete the loop. If you fail to 
do this, you begin to come down 
head first. 

Every day there are decisions that 
you and I have to make. They have 



to be made instantly. Make instant 
decision for Christ. — H. 

175. Decision Needed. A farmer 
who was far along in Hfe was one 
evening leisurely driving his cows 
home from pasture, when his thoughts 
ran like this : "Here I am getting 
old, and yet I am not a Christian; 
when is this matter to be settled? 
I fear never, if I don't commence 
soon to think on the subject." And 
then the thought came up, "Why not 
settle it at once? Why not be a 
Christian without further delay?" 

This came so forcibly home to his 
conscience that he exclaimed, "I will 
be a Christian now ! This night shall 
decide it;" and, strange as it may 
appear,^ he was at once enabled to 
give his heart to God and go on 
his way rejoicing. 

Sometimes it appears, as in this 
case, that all that is needed is de- 
cision. And, in any case, when the 
point of decision is reached, the 
blessing comes, for with decision 
comes the willingness to give up all 
for Christ. — American Messenger. 

176. Decision, Need of. A prom- 
inent merchant in one of our great 
cities said that one Sunday he went 
to church in Cleveland and heard the 
minister preach about accepting 
Christ. It was no new theme to the 
merchant. He had meant to do it 
all his life and he had always thought 
of it. He wondered whether the 
minister would say anything new 
about it, anything that would make 
it more feasible. Nothing was said 
but what he had heard a hundred 
times before. And then it dawned 
upon him that probably nothing ever 
would be. It had all been said. Any 
new element that could come into the 
situation could come only from action 
on his own part. Man enough to see 
the point, he shut the door on his 
thoughts. He had more than done 
justice by them. They had had his 
attention for more than thirty years 
of his life, and he was now a man 
of fifty and not saved. Without an- 
other thought he went to the minis- 
ter then, after that service, and told 
him that he accepted Christ, and 
that as soon as it could be arranged 
he would do it publicly. After his 
action there was plenty more to think 
about. Thought was no longer a dull, 
brooding, poisonous, stupefying proc- 



56 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



ess. All first-rate thought is more 
than half action. And there was 
nothing lacking in this man's decision 
because it was done suddenly. The 
suddenness of it was the saving thing. 
And so all of us, in a dozen dif- 
ferent_ directions, are administering 
an opiate to ourselves by professing 
that we wish a longer time to think 
a matter over. We fancy we are 
dealing delicately and finely with the 
matter when, in reality, we are blunt- 
ing and coarsening the fine capacity 
for action, and when that is dulled 
life has no more zest. Shakespeare 
gave us Hamlet as the visible sum- 
mary of the miseries of the indecisive 
soul who can no longer act, but only 
see and think and ponder. — Sunday- 
School Times. 

177. Decision, the Diver's. A 

professional diver has in his home 
two oyster shells with a piece of 
printed paper fastened between them. 
While diving one day, he observed 
at the bottom of the sea an oyster 
on a rock with this paper in its 
mouth. He detached the oyster, and 
held the paper close to the goggles 
of his head-dress, and in reading it 
found it to be a little Gospel tract 
earnestly calling upon whosoever 
should read it to repent at once and 
give his heart to God. He said, "I 
cannot hold out any longer against 
God's mercy since it pursues me thus." 
And down there at the bottom of 
the sea, he repented and breathed out 
his heart to God in prayer. — From 
the "Fisherman and His Friends." 

178. Decision, While Young. 

See Young People, Appeal to. 

179. Dedication, of Self. 

I take God to be my Father. 

I take Jesus Christ to be my Sa- 
viour. 

I take the Holy Spirit to be my 
Guide. 

I take the Bible to be the rule of 
my life. 

I take Christian people to be my 
associates. 

I take Christian work to be my 
duty. 

I likewise dedicate myself to the 
Lord, and this I do freely, deliber- 
ately, sincerely and forever. 

180. Delay, Danger of. A friend 
of mine laboring in a Southern city 



returned to the South, and, stopping 
over between trains, was told that a 
man in the hospital was dying who 
had been deeply impressed in his 
meeting and dying without hope. He 
went up to see him and plead with 
him to be a Christian without avail. 
The time came for his train to leave 
and the man was still unsaved. He 
said to him, "I will pray with you 
for the last few minutes, if you will 
accept Christ just press my hand." 
But there came no pressure and as 
he was leaving the dying man he said 
o him, "Tell me when you will come," 
and he answered, "I think I will 
come to-morrow." Before my friend 
reached the end of his journey a tel- 
egram followed him saying that the 
man was dead. To-morrow with him 
was eternity. — J. Wilbur Chapman, 
D.D. 

181. Delay, Fatal. A captain of 
a ship, with his wife, was on a ves- 
sel, wrecked not far from shore, but 
too far to reach it unaided. They 
found footing on a narrow ledge of 
rock. The people upon the shore sent 
out rockets into the sea with cords 
attached to them, until at last the 
line fell where the captain could 
reach it. He drew upon it until he 
had a stouter cord and a stouter line, 
until at last he had in his possession 
a good strong rope. He took that 
rope and tied it about his wife under 
her arms ; and then he called to her 
above the fury of the sea and re- 
minded her of the mighty force of 
the undertow. And he told her that 
she must spring into the water at the 
time of the incoming wave, and that 
he would give her the signal. He 
waited until he saw a larger billow 
than the others come toward them, a 
great mountain of water, foaming 
and tossing its crest, and seemingly 
about to break upon them ; and then, 
just as it was breaking, he called to 
her above the fury of the sea, and 
said, "Now! Now!" The poor 
woman hesitated, she shrank back, 
she tried to cling to her husband. 
She tried to hold to the rock ; but she 
found that she was to be swept over, 
and so she let go and cast herself 
down into the sea, only in time to 
be caught by the fury of the re- 
ceding wave, and the life was dashed 
out of her on the rock where her 
husband was standing. There was 
another rocket and another line, and 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 57 



the captain took this and bound it 
about himself. He could not tell his 
wife's fate as yet. And again he 
cast his eyes seaward, until he saw 
another great towering billow, and 
as it came upon him he cast himself 
with it toward the shore, and helping 
hands pulled upon the rope and 
brought him there in safety, where 
he found the dead body of his poor 
wife, who had been just one moment 
too late. 

182. Delay, for Convenient Sea- 
son. Many are to be found who 
know the truth and approve it, and 
mean one day to be decided followers 
of Christ; but at present something 
hinders them. Is this your state of 
soul? 

Are you waiting till you are sick 
and unwell? Surely you will not tell 
me that is a convenient season. 
When your body is racked with pain 
— when your mind is distracted with 
all kinds of anxious thoughts — is that 
a suitable time to begin to seek God ? 

Are you waiting till you have 
leisure? And when do you expect 
to have more time than you have 
now? Every year your life seems 
shorter than the last; you find more 
to think and to do in it. And, after 
all, you know not whether you may 
live to see another year. Boast not 
thyself of to-morrow — ^now is the 
time. 

Are you waiting until your heart 
is perfectly fit and ready? That will 
never be. It will always be corrupt 
and sinful — a bubbling fountain, full 
of evil. Delay not ; better begin as 
you are. 

Are you waiting till the devil will 
let you come to Christ without 
trouble? That will never be; if you 
would be saved, you must fight for it. 

Are you waiting till the gate is 
wide? That will never be. It will 
not alter. It is wide enough for the 
chief of sinners, if he come in an 
humble and self-abased spirit. But 
if there be any little sin you are 
resolved not to give up, you will 
never, with all your struggling, be 
able to get in. 

Are you waiting because some 
Christians are inconsistent and some 
professors fall away? Hear the word 
of the Lord Jesus Christ: ''What is 
that to thee? follow thou me." 

Oh, lingering friend, are not your 
excuses broken reeds? Are not your 



reasoning and defenses unprofitable 
and vain? Be honest — confess the 
truth. You have no good reason for 
waiting. This day I charge you to 
throw away indecision. Wait no 
longer; be decided for Christ, lest 
waiting you should be lost — forever 
lost. — Christian Observer. 

183. Delay, Loss from. An aged 
nobleman who had lived his life as 
a man of the world was visited by 
God's grace when he was past four- 
score and became a truly changed 
man, and spent the remainder of his 
life in humble faith and hope. When 
Christian friends congratulated him 
on the wonderful mercy and forbear- 
ance that had been extended to him 
by God, who had spared him, a look 
of sadness would come over the old 
man's face as he replied, "Yes, my 
dear friends, thank God my soul is 
saved, but my life is lost, my life is 
lost." 

184. Delay to be Shunned. 

"Shun delays, they breed remorse; 
Take thy time while time is lent 
thee ; 
Creeping snails have weakest force; 
Fly their fault, lest thou repent 
thee; 
Good is best when earnest wrought; 
Lingering labors come to naught." 

185. Dependence on Christ for 
Salvation. See Christ Depended on 
for Salvation. 

186. Disease and Cure. See Sin, 
and Salvation. 

187. Discipleship, Secret. It is 

both a daring and dangerous thing 
to try to live secretly for Christ. 
It breaks off the sprouting tendrils 
of the new life, and so there can 
be neither bud, blossom, nor fruit. 
A light shut up tight in a lantern 
only soots and burns that which con- 
tains it. So it is with the soul. It 
is its nature to shine forth, but 
turned back upon itself it dims and 
dies. There are some in every con- 
gregation who are trying in a half- 
hearted sort of way "to be good." 
That is too indefinite. There are no 
sharp outlines to it. It does not mean 
anything that is humble or heroic. 
The result in almost every such case 
is disastrous. — E. P. Ingersoll. 



58 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



i88. Discipleship, Secret or 
Open. At the beginning of the 
Reformation, Martin of Basle came 
to a knowledge of the truth, but, 
afraid to make a public confession, 
he wrote on a leaf of parchment : 
"O most merciful Christ, I know that 
I can be saved only by the merit of 
thy blood. Holy Jesus, I acknowledge 
thy sufferings for me. I love thee ! 
I love thee !" Then he removed a 
stone from the wall of his chamber 
and hid it there. It was not discov- 
ered for more than a hundred years. 
About the same time Martin Luther 
found the truth as it is in Christ. 
He said : "My Lord has confessed me 
before men; I will not shrink from 
confessing him before kings." The 
world knows what followed, and to- 
day it reveres the memory of Luther ; 
but as for Martin of Basle, who cares 
for him? — Rev. David James Bur- 
RELL, D.D. 

189. Door, at the. There is a 
story of a prodigal who came back 
from the far country and could not 
find his father's house. He ^ wan- 
dered on and on, and at last, in the 
gathering night, sank down, heart- 
sick and faint, on the steps of a little 
cottage. Without knowing it he was 
on his own father's door-step. Inside 
sat the aged father and mother, their 
hearts hungering for their long-lost 
boy. Outside, bowed and crushed 
and longing for love and for home, 
lay the weary, homesick son — on the 
very threshold of home, but not 
knowing it. 

So near to the gates of heaven is 
every human soul that is penitent, 
weary of sin, longing for divine 
mercy and love. There are many 
who are not yet in Christ's kingdom 
but who have at least some desire 
for heaven's peace. They do not 
know where to find what they seek. 
But close by them is one of heaven's 
gates and_ they have but to arise in 
their penitence and enter into the 
Father's house. — J. R. Miller, D.D. 

190. Door of the Heart. 

"O Jesus, thou art standing 

Outside the fast-closed door, 
In lowly patience waiting 
To pass the threshold o'er." 

Sing those beautiful words to your- 
self, and then study Turner's picture 
of our Saviour knocking at the fast- 



closed door. It is the pride of many 
generous souls to boast of their 
wholesome hospitality, and many 
homes have the panel inscribed 
"Christ is the Head of this house." 
That being true, is he always the 
honored Sovereign? When a guest 
of state calls, our finest etiquette is 
displayed, and we are not guilty of 
any breach of propriety. Is that true 
when we realize that our silent Guest 
is always present? Gaze on the soft, 
pleading eyes. Listen to the mellow, 
entreating voice : 

'T died for you, my children. 
And will ye treat me so?" 

Think of that call of the Strong to 
the weak; the Hope for the hope- 
less ; the Comforter for the weary 
and distressed ; then dare you to be 
"out" when such a Friend calls? 
When a child turns disdainfully from 
a parent, the parent grieves in help- 
lessness and silence. Heed that su- 
preme, all-forgiving Parent, and stop 
your mad rush after nothingness; 
halt your headlong plunge into empti- 
ness ! Permit your door to open as 
the door of the hospitable Southerner 
is, always ajar. The call has come! 
Love tears down walls of infamy; 
heals wounded lives ; makes men of 
cowards, and resolves the improbable 
into the positive. It is the dynamo 
of the world. No human heart can 
beat without it. Therefore, do not 
be deaf to that gentle, loving knock- 
ing, but sing in glad renunciation of 
self: 

"O Lord, with shame and sorrow 
We open now the door; 
Dear Saviour, enter, enter, 
And leave us nevermore I" 
— L. E. Young. 

191. Doubt Cured. The old cap- 
tain of the Merrimac was an inmate 
of the Pennsylvania Soldiers' Home. 
He was a skeptic. For long, the 
chaplain tried to get him to read the 
Bible, but he would not. At last he 
said to the captain, "Read it, and 
mark in red anything that you don't 
believe. Begin with the Gospel of 
John." The captain, with a glitter 
in his eye, took up the challenge. He 
was sick at the time, confined to bed. 
Every few hours the chaplain, pass- 
ing his door, would come in and say, 
"Captain, have you marked anything 
yet?" The old captain would grin, 
but say nothing. After a day or two 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 59 



when the chaplain stepped in there 
lay the old captain dead, with his 
Bible open. The chaplain leafed 
through the Gospel of John. Noth- 
ing marked in all the first chapter, 
nor all the second chapter, nor all the 
third, until he came to John 3 : 16, 
and in red was written, "I have cast 
my anchor in a safe harbor, thank 
God!" He'd found the only anchor 
that could grip and the only rock 
that could hold. — Rev. Elmer Ells- 
worth Helms, D.D. 

192. Doubt, Cured by Faith. A 

little girl in America, when she was 
asked by the church committee as to 
her knowledge of Jesus Christ, and 
asked to recite her experience, said: 
"I do not know if I have any 'ex- 
perience.' All I know is that Jesus 
said, 'Come unto me,' and I came, and 
he said, 'I will give you rest,' and 
he gave me rest." One of the older 
men said : "But, my dear, you do not 
seem to know much about the Slough 
of Despond." She dropped a curt- 
sey and said: "Please, sir, I did not 
come that way." — Arthur T. Pier- 
son, D.D. 

193. Emotion, Dallied with. 

Many a man misses the best in life 
by his failure to recognize the frailty 
of fine emotion. His soul is stirred 
by a sincere and noble emotion, but 
he dallies with it, neglects it, defers 
putting it into definite form, and it 
speedily faints and dies. He thus 
becomes guilty of what Dr. J. H. 
Jowett calls, "Spiritual murder," for 
when this man procrastinated with 
his great emotion he was really mak- 
ing an alliance with death. Jesus 
constantly emphasized the supreme 
delicacy of a noble impulse, and as 
Dr. Jowett describes it "the imminent 
deadly peril which attends delay." 
Nourish the noble emotions that are 
stirred ^ in your soul, act upon them 
immediately, and they will acquire a 
rare robustness. — Christian Observer. 

194. Enthusiasm in Saving 
Work. An explosion recently took 
place in a coal mine near Scranton, 
Pa., by which ten men were cut off 
in one of the tunnels. The work of 
rescue was planned. The digging 
was done by gangs who were often 
relieved. But there was a lack of 
hope. Men kept muttering, "It ^ is 
no use." The owners of the mine 



stood apart, looking sad and gloomy. 
Everybody was covered with grime, 
and when the sun set employers and 
workmen concluded, in despair, that 
they might as well give up. Just then 
a buggy drove up. The youngest 
member of the firm leaped out. He 
had been away at the time of the 
accident. He was pale, but his eyes 
were shining. "Dead? Not a bit of 
it," he cried, cheerily. "They had 
enough food to keep them alive 
longer than this. Hello, boys ! Why, 
you've made tremendous headway ! 
You must be near the men. Give 
me a pick and come along. We'll 
have them out in no time !" He had 
thrown off his coat, and was hard 
at the digging. "Give them a cheer 
to let them know we are coming. 
Now, all together, — women and all! 
One — two — three — hurrah!" He put 
new life into them all. A rousing 
cheer rang out. Hours passed. His 
courage did not flag. The women 
ran for food and stimulants. The 
gangs worked eagerly, and at last a 
cheer went up. At the last shout 
the leader threw up his hand for 
silence. A feeble cry was heard. 
The men were saved, and they owed 
their lives to the enthusiasm of that 
young man. 

195. Evangelism. Evangelism is 
the entire work of making Christ 
known to people and persuading 
them to receive him as their Saviour 
and Lord. In pulpit, Bible-school, or 
prayer circle, in home, street, or 
place of business wherever a lover 
of Jesus seeks by word or deed or 
by word and deed to make him and 
his saving power known, and to per- 
suade others to come into such a re- 
lation to him that they shall be par- 
takers of his grace, there is evan- 
gelism. — Rev. James A. Francis. 

196. Evangelism, in Pulpit and 

Pew. The majority of people out- 
side the church to-day have never 
had a personal invitation to accept 
Christ ; they have heard sermons and 
addresses, but it is the nature of the 
human mind to feel that such appeals 
are hardly personal, therefore they 
are either resisted or treated with 
indifference. A distinguished man, a 
former governor of a Southern state, 
came to Christ after a sad experience 
in sin ; he came because a minister 
whom I know wrote him a personal 



6o 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



letter urging him to become a Chris- 
tian. He did so, but made the pa- 
thetic acknowledgment that in all his 
hfe no one had ever before asked 
him to come to Christ. There are 
thousands Hke him, — they live in our 
homes, work in our shops, meet us 
on the streets, and come in contact 
with us tkrough the years; yet to 
many no word of invitation is 
spoken, and some of them drift into 
eternity unwarned and unsaved. 

Evangelism in the pulpit makes the 
way so plain that a child is able to 
understand it, makes Christ so real 
that one can almost see him with 
the natural vision, makes the hearer 
of the message realize his danger, and 
makes the approach to the unsaved 
by the Christian as natural as for one 
to breathe. 

Evangelism in the pews Is putting 
into practice what the minister 
preaches ; it is not being fanatical 
(nor is it being "pious" in the ob- 
jectionable use of the word), it is 
not in any way being unwise in the 
manner of approach to the one whom 
we seek to influence spiritually ; it 
is being true to Christ and to those 
who do not know him. — Rev. J. 
Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

197. Evangelism, of Service. 
In Shanghai, China, it is a common 
sight to see four or five coolies pull- 
ing a cart, often heavily laden. They 
get on well enough on the level, but 
when they come to go up over the 
bridges they often find it difficult to 
tug the cart up. As I crossed a 
bridge the other morning I saw a 
well-dressed Chinese gentleman that 
I knew go to the assistance of a cart 
that was stuck, and, laying hold of 
a rope, give just the extra help that 
was needed to get the cart to the 
top of the bridge. It must have 
caused a good deal of surprise to 
the passers-by, and not least to the 
coolies. My friend overtook me a 
few minutes later, and said, 'T am 
very much interested in the laboring 
classes." "Yes," said I. 'T saw you 
taking a very practical interest just 
now." He answered, "That is my 
work; whenever I see them unable 
to pull their loads, I help them to 
the top, and then I have a chance 
for a few moments to preach the 
gospel to them. I tell them, Tt is 
because I am a Christian that I 
.jielped you, because I love Jesus.' 



And if I see a wheelbarrow upset in 
the street (a very common sight), I 
help the man replace his load and 
preach the gospel to him." Service- 
evangelism is a good kind of evan- 
gelism. Practice it and you will lead 
many to Christ. Try it in your own 
home, church, community. — H. 

198. Evangelism, What It Is. 
Let a single incident illustrate the 
simplest form of evangelism. 

It is at the close of a morning 
service in a country church. The 
stranger that has preached approaches 
a young man of eighteen, learns his 
name, and then frankly and kindly 
says, "George, are you a Christian 
man?" "Not yet, sir." ''George, if 
you knew exactly what Christ 
wanted you to do to get started, to 
take the first real step in the Chris- 
tian Hfe, wouH you do it?" "Yes, 
sir, I think I would." "Sit down a 
minute," and then in a few moments 
he explains what it means to accept 
Christ as Saviour and as Lord. 

"Now, George, understanding the 
matter thus far, are you willing?" 
"I am." They bowed together, and 
George prayed thus: "O Lord Jesus, 
I have not been serving you up till 
now ; but from this time I will count 
that I belong to you. Please help me. 
Amen." 

"George, do you want to keep this 
a dead secret?" "Why, no." The 
pastor is called over, and George 
walks up to him, and with tears of 
joy says, "Pastor, I have given my 
heart to Jesus; I am going to work 
for him now." 

That was evangelism. Simple? 
Yes. ^ It required two things ; first, a 
genuine loving interest in George on 
the part of the minister ; and, second, 
a clear enough knowledge of Christ 
and of Christ's saving relation to 
men to state it so George could get 
hold of it. Both of these things are 
within reach of the ordinary disciple. 
— Rev. James A. Francis, D.D. 

199. Example, of Good Confes- 
sion. An instance of quiet confes- 
sion was told us the other day by a 
humble follower of Christ. A num- 
ber of workingmen were engaged in 
repairing a side-walk. At the noon 
hour they grouped themselves on a 
vacant lot to eat their lunch. One 
of the men was seen to bow his head 
reverently in prayer. A few of the 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 6i 



men threw stones in his direction as 
if to hold him up to ridicule. But 
one of the number was moved to ask 
the man why he had prayed under 
those circumstances. He explained 
that he was a Christian, that he rec- 
ognized all his blessings, including his 
food, as gifts from God. And he 
added, "I am not ashamed of Christ, 
but Christ will be ashamed of the 
whole lot of you if you do not con- 
fess him." The solemn hush that 
fell on that group of workingmen 
evidenced that this humble confes- 
sor had made a deep impression by 
showing his colors. His grace before 
lunch gave him his opportunity to 
witness for Christ. If all Christians 
were thus loyal in the daily relation- 
ships of life, what a vast amount of 
added work would be done for 
Christ. Many would be won by 
such quiet faithfulness who now are 
swept into the Kingdom only by some 
great revival niovement. The call to 
confess Christ includes more than the 
public confession which marks our 
entrance into the church. It sum- 
mons us to witness daily by word 
and example and to show men at 
every opportunity just where we 
stand. 

200. Experience That Empowers. 
"The winning of souls, magnificent 
as it is, is not the highest nor first 
object to be striven for by the Chris- 
tian." So wrote one who has been 
blessedly used in winning souls. 
What is that first object — that ex- 
perience which empowers for service? 

201. Fact, Not Feeling. Chris- 
tian workers often hear a man or 
woman say, ''But I don't feel any 
difference." General McClellan, when 
he had been appointed Major-General 
of the Union Army, wrote to his 
wife: "I do not feel any different 
from what I did yesterday. Indeed, 
I have not yet donned my new uni- 
form. I am sure that I am in com- 
mand of the army, however, for the 
President's order to that effect now 
lies before me." It is exactly the 
same with us who are "justified by 
faith." It is not a question of feel- 
ing, but of fact. 

202. Failure, God Gives Another 
Chance. She was a very young 
stenographer, and she was very pale 
as she stood before her employer to 



receive a discharge from her first 
position. "I have given you three 
chances," he was saying, "and you 
have failed three times. I cannot try 
you again." 

Three chances — and he would give 
her no more; how infinitely better 
does God treat us than that! If he 
discarded us after three or a hun- 
dred failures where would any of us 
be? God so loves the world, how- 
ever, that he gives to whomsoever will 
every opportunity to begin again, to 
make another attempt to succeed as 
his servant. God goes further, more- 
over; he not only offers repeated 
opportunities to every one of us who 
has failed, but he gives us his own 
daily and hourly help in seeing our 
mistakes and learning to avoid them 
in the future — and then he gives us 
strength to conquer. God is man's 
very best Employer. — Forward, 

203. Faith, An Active. Belief is 
the acceptance of a map. Faith is 
the taking the voyage.— Rev. J. H, 
JOWETT, D.D. 

204. Faith, and Believing. Faith 
and believing are two different things. 
Dr. Arthur Pink, the Bible teacher, 
has helped to make the difference 
clear. How did we get our eyesight? 
he asks. By our own will power or 
activity? No; our sight is God's 
gift. But how do we see? We see 
by using our sight. We decide for 
ourselves when we shall see and 
when we shall not see. Our will 
power enters into it. Seeing, there- 
fore, is an act of ours ; sight is God's 
gift. Seeing is our voluntary use 
of the gift of sight. So of faith and 
believing. Faith is God's gift to us. 
Peter writes (2 Peter 1:1) "to them 
that have obtained a like precious 
faith with us in the righteousness of 
our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.*' 
Obtaining, here, is not attaining or 
achieving; it is receiving a gift. But, 
after God has given us the gift of 
faith, it is our responsibility to de- 
cide whether we shall use it or not. 
When we use the gift of faith we 
believe. So we may rightly speak 
of "the will to believe." Many a 
child of God is failing to enjoy God's 
richest blessings in Christ because 
failing to use for those blessings the 
gift of faith already received. By 
simple will power we may, and we 
should- believe all that God's Word 



62 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



says is true for us in Christ Jesus 
our Lord and life. Are we believ- 
ing with our faith? — Sunday-School 
Times. 

205. Faith and Feeling. A thou- 
sand times have I seen a darkened 
and struggling soul find a way along 
a path like this. He has said, "I 
want the feeling of forgiven sin, or 
rest and peace." I have answered, 
"Let us take a word of Christ and 
follow it precisely. Here is the word, 
'Him that cometh unto me I will in 
no wise cast out.' Coming is the 
assent and consent of yourself in 
the personal Christ; it is the yielding 
of yourself to him as your Saviour 
and Lord. Do you now, as far as 
you know yourself, make such re- 
dedication of yourself to the per- 
sonal Christ?" When the answer has 
been "Yes," and I have been sure 
of deep sincerity, I have added, "And 
here is the word of the personal 
Christ to you, "I will in no wise cast 
out." Can you believe that word and 
rest on it? And how often have I 
seen the light break over the troubled 
face, and heard sighs give place to 
songs, as the soul by such great and 
yet simple faith has entered into the 
radiant certainty of forgiveness. — 
Wayland Hoyt, D.D. 

206. Faith, and Obedience. Mr. 
John R. Mott, while on his mission- 
ary tour around the world, received 
a letter from Kumamoto in Japan, 
inviting him to come there, and ask- 
ing how many persons it woUld take 
to form a Christian Association, add- 
ing that there were only three Chris- 
tians in a college of seven hundred 
students. Mr. Mott wrote back that 
three were enough to form an asso- 
ciation if they were only united. He 
also said that he would visit the 
college. He found, when he reached 
Kumamoto, that the three Christians 
had grown to fourteen. Five years 
later he visited them, and learned 
that they had grown to be one of 
the strongest association^ in Japan. 
He found that they went every morn- 
ing at daybreak to a place they 
called "Flowery Hill" and held a 
Prayer service. He also found a 
crowd of the class most difficult to 
reach at that time of the day, but 
before he left fully two hundred stu- 
dents had accepted Christ. Those 
men obeyed God's command to launch 



out into the deep of faith and let 
down the nets of prayer and work. 

"Though it is against all precedent 
and against good judgment, yet if 
you say so. Lord, I will do it." 

Do you remember how, when you 
came to the pasture gate, you used 
to have to get out of the buggy and 
go ahead to open the gate? They 
are making a new sort of contrivance 
these days. All you have to do is 
to drive right at the gate, and it opens 
of its own accord. In some way the 
weight of the horse, as he steps on 
the platform, releases a lever, and 
the gate swings open. Often we are 
unable to see just how God's com- 
mands are going to be obeyed. H 
he says, "Go ahead," or "Let down 
the net," it is safe to do it. 

When he tells you to start out on 
the Christian life it is safe for you 
to do it.— H. 

207. Faith and Obedience. See 

Obedience Brings Blessing. 

208. Faith, and Works. A man 

dreamed that he constructed a ladder 
from earth toward heaven, and when 
he did a good deed his ladder went 
up two feet. When he did an un- 
usually good deed his ladder went 
still higher. When he gave large 
sums of mone}^ to the poor it went 
still higher. After a while it went 
out of sight, and as the years rolled 
on he expected at his death to step 
off that ladder into heaven, but in 
his dream he heard a voice thunder 
from the skies: "He that climbeth 
up som.e other way, the same is a 
thief and a robber." Down came the 
ladder and the man, and he awoke. 
He realized then his mistake, and 
sought salvation in the only way. 

209. Faith, Christian Life En- 
tered by. Sam Jones was talking 
to a man of weak faith. The doubter 
asked if Mr. Jones could not give 
him a demonstration of religion. 
"None," was the reply; "you must 
get inside the fold, and the demon- 
stration will come of itself. Out 
West they have a plan for watering 
cattle. The cattle have to mount a 
platform to reach the troughs. As 
they step on the platform their 
weight presses a ^ lever, and this 
throws the water into the troughs. 
They have to get on the platform 
through faith, and this act provides 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 63 



the water and leads them to it 
That's the way with religion. You've 
got to get on the platform." 

210. Faith, Comes by Hearing. 
See Soul, Give It a Chance. 

211. Faith, Defined. There is a 
man Hving in the City of New York 
who has a house on the Hudson 
River. His daughter and her family 
went to spend the winter with him, 
and in the course of the season the 
scarlet fever broke out. One little 
girl was put in quarantine. Every 
morning the old grandfather used to 
go out and bid his grandchild "Good- 
by" before going to his business. On 
one of these occasions the little child 
took the old man by the hand, and, 
leading him to a corner of the room, 
without saying a word she pointed 
to the floor where she had arranged 
some small crackers so they would 
spell out, "Grandpa, I want a box of 
paints." He said nothing. On his 
return home he went to the room 
as usual. His^ grandchild, without 
looking to see if her wish had been 
complied with, took him into the 
same corner, where he saw spelled 
out in the same way, "Grandpa, I 
thank you for the box of paints." 
That was faith. 

212. Faith, Expressing. Christ 
says, "They are mine that testify of 
me." I was all my life timid about 
testifying for my Saviour. I believe 
this was given for encouragement. 
I dreamed I was in a large church. 
It was full of people. Every one 
was supposed to testify for Christ. 
When any one did, an angel came 
and presented a great white cross. At 
last I got courage enough to testify, 
in a very poor and halting way, 
thinking I was not worthy to receive 
the reward as others did. But the 
angel came and presented me a cross 
as to all the others. I realized that 
if we do the best we can, our reward 
will be just as great. Why can we 
not get people to tell of their actual 
experiences in the Christian Hfe? It 
is certainly needful in our churches 
to-day. 

213. Faith Is One Step at a 
Time. See, Believe and Climb. 

214. Faith, Saving. "What must 
I do to be saved?" The answer is 



clear and simple, "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved" (Acts 16:31). 

"Only a step to Jesus : 

Then why not take it now? 
Come, thy sins confessing, 
To him, thy Saviour, bow." 

Only a step, but a great step. — 
Rev. J. W. Weddell, D.D. 

215. Faith, the Key. When that 
awful storm of hot stones, molten 
lava and death-dealing pumice buried 
the city of Pompeii, four prisoners, 
with their feet fastened in stocks, 
were overtaken by the flood. Sitting 
in their dungeon they could hear the 
dreadful roar, telling of the coming 
of something, they knew not what, 
and they could feel the stifling breath 
of the gases which were carrying 
down to death the people of that 
doomed city, i merciful means of 
stupefaction, shutting out the more 
terrible effects of the hail of death 
which came in its train. 

Nearer and more near the wave of 
death came, until now it spread even 
to the door of the prisoners' cell. 
Frightened by the mysterious shadow 
falling like a pall over everything, 
the jailer fled for Hfe, deaf to the 
agonized cries of the men he had 
been set to keep. 

There stood the door of escape, 
now wide open as their keeper had 
left it. And, oh, more fearful 
thought, there just on the very 
threshold of the doorway lay the key 
which the jailer had dropped in his 
flight, the key which would unlock 
the iron stocks which held their feet 
so fast! 

What language could picture the 
thoughts of those four doomed men, 
as they fought to reach that key? If 
only they might reach it there might 
be a chance for them to escape, as 
others were trying to do. But ever 
just beyond their utmost reach lay 
the thing which could free them, a 
mockery to their hopes, a jeer flaunt- 
ing itself in the very face of destiny, 
And so they fought and shrieked and 
tore their very flesh in madness un- 
til the fumes from the distant volcano 
filled the cell and put an end to it 
all. And there lay the key just be- 
yond their reach! 

How like_ to that old prison cell 
of Pompeii is sin. Fast in the stocks 
of evil, men are still bound hand and 



64 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



foot. Death, darker than that which 
descended over that ancient city, 
casts its pall over us all. We see 
its fateful approach, and look about 
us in our moments of thoughtfulness 
for some means of release. Are we, 
too, prisoners condemned without re- 
lief, to sure death? 

Thanks be to him that has loved 
us with an everlasting love, there 
is a way of escape for us all. The 
key is here, and it is not beyond 
our reach. Blessed hope! Blessed 
assurance ! God 1 as put the key 
within our very grasp. Nay, into 
our hand he has thrust the master- 
key which will open every door the 
devil may shut against us. It is the 
key of faith in Jesus Christ. — Rev. 
E. L, Vincent. 

216. Family Prayers, Influence 

of. See Prayers, Family. 

217. Father's Influence. In the 

home of a pious farmer there hung 
the well-known motto: "But as for 
me and my house, we will serve the 
Lord." The motto meant something 
in that house, for the farmer prayed 
daily that all might truly serve the 
Lord. The last clause fitted all the 
house save the oldest son, who per- 
sistently refused to accept Christ. 
One day the father and son were 
alone in the room where the motto 
hung. The father said, "My dear 
Henry, I cannot and will not be a 
liar any longer. You, who belong to 
my house, do not want to serve the 
Lord. Therefore I must add the 
words 'except Henry' ; it hurts me 
to do it, but I must be true." The 
thought so impressed the boy that 
he gave himself to Christ. 

218. Father-love. In his volume 
of addresses, "As Jesus Passed By," 
Gipsy Smith tells of the time when 
his father was away for six weeks 
holding evangelistic meetings. ^ The 
time to the motherless children 
seemed long. Hearing that the father 
was coming home on a certain day, 
they were up early in the morning 
to welcome him; but it was night 
before he arrived. This is what 
happened: "When father came into 
the old tent we all made way for 
the baby girl to go to him first, and 
he sat down and put his arms around 
her and kissed her and caressed her. 
She was his baby, and he had not 



seen her for six weeks. My father 
kept her a long time, too long for 
the rest of us who were waiting. It 
was my turn next, and my boyish 
heart was so impatient for the clasp 
of my father's arms that I could 
scarcely endure to be kept out so 
long. When I could stand it no 
longer I cried to my little sister, 
'Come out, come out, it is my turn.' 
And she rolled her black, bright eyes 
at me, and said, 'You get me out of 
my father's arms if you can.' And I 
cried out, 'Well, I cannot do that, 
but there is room for me, too, and 
I am coming in.' And I crept in be- 
side her, and, oh, the comfort and 
feeling of safety when I felt my 
father's strong, loving arms around 
me. 

219. Father, Love of. I read the 

other day that a father was greatly 
troubled about his son, who had 
gone wrong. The son became ill and 
despondent and wrote very trem- 
blingly and fearfully, as if to ask 
whether there was any hope of for- 
giveness. The father at once sent 
a telegram to him, and the telegram 
consisted of one word ; the one word 
was "Home," and the telegram was 
signed "Father." Now the Gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ is God's 
telegram to the sinful world, summed 
up in one word, "Home" and signed 
by one name, "Father." — Robert F. 

HORTON. 

220. Feeling, Not All-important. 

See Fact, Not Feeling. 

221. Fidelity to Souls. See Min- 
ister and Evangelist. 

222. Fire, More Needed. See 

Zeal, More Needed. 

223. First Things First. "Seek 

ye first his kingdom, and his right- 
eousness." I am not here this after- 
noon to tell you to be religious. You 
know that. I am not here to tel" 
you to seek the kingdom of God. I 
have come to tell you to seek the 
kingdom of God first. First. Not 
many people do that. They put a 
little religion into their life — once a 
week, perhaps. They might just as 
well let it alone. It is not worth 
seeking the kingdom of God unless 
we seek it first. Suppose you take 
the helm out of a ship and hang it 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 65 



over the bow, and send that ship to 
sea, will it ever reach the other side? 
Certainly not. It will drift about 
anyhow. Keep religion in its place, 
and it will take you straight through 
life, and straight to your Father 
in heaven when life is over. But 
if you do not put it in its place, 
you may just as well have noth- 
ing to do with it. Religion out of 
its place in a human life is the 
most miserable thing in the world. 
There is nothing that requires so 
much to be kept in its place as re- 
ligion. 

224. Fishing for Men. A com- 
pany of pleasure-seekers went to a 
woodland stream to spend a day in 
fishing. They carried with them the 
most improved fishing outfits money 
could buy. The young men sat on 
the bank of the stream and waited 
long for results, butthe hours passed 
and they had nothing to show for 
their pains. 

Near by sat a ragged urchin who 
was catching fish after fish while the 
young swells were toiling in vain. 
Yet he had only a branch from a 
tree for a pole, a string for a Hne, 
worms and flies for bait, and a bent 
pin for a hook. When they jollied 
him over his success and asked his 
secret, he told it in few words: 
"You fellers are fishin' for fun, but 
I am fishin' for fish !" 

The fisher-boy's answer has its les- 
son for all who would be fishers of 
men.^ So long as we perform our 
religious service perfunctorily, or for 
the pleasure it gives us, we need 
expect ^ no results. When we set 
about it with a passion for souls, 
results will follow. — Christian Union 
Herald. 

225. Friend, Wins Friend to 
Christ. Recently a young woman 
was led to acknowledge Jesus Christ 
publicly as her personal Saviour. 
Almost her first thought afterward 
was that she must make this known 
to her most intimate girl friend, who 
resided in a near-by city. They had 
been friends for several years, held 
many things in common, for both 
were engaged in artistic professions, 
and had together taken several jour- 
neys of many months' duration across 
the_ continent. The young woman 
hesitated to write, fearing jest and 
ridicule, preferring to tell personally 



her recent experience, which had 
been one of severe struggle. 

Three weeks later the friend came 
to the young woman's home, and in 
a quiet talk by themselves she was 
told of what had occurred. She was 
much affected, and when, at the 
close, the young woman asked her if 
she would not consider this impor- 
tant question also, she replied that 
for the past four weeks she had been 
under deep conviction, and it only 
needed this word to cause her to take 
Christ for her Saviour and openly 
confess him. — ^M. B. W. 

226. Friendship of Christ. See 

Christ Our Friend. 

227. Foundation, Build on Christ. 

See Sin, Secret. 

228. Gift, o\' Gratitude. A Mo- 
hammedan father in East Turkestan 
was so rejoiced at the restoration of 
his sight by a medical mission that, 
having no money to offer the doctor, 
he b];ought his daughter, an only 
child of twelve, and gave her as a 
fee. ^ She is being trained in the 
mission school. — Christian Endeavor 
World, 

229. God, Acknowledged. When 
the old Spanish mariners, in their 
explorations touched any new land 
the first thing they did was to run 
up the flag of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella to the masthead on the high- 
est point they could reach on the 
new land. Every new shore was 
claimed for Spain. The sovereigns 
that encouraged the explorations of 
these Spanish mariners were acknowl- 
edged when the first foot touched 
the new shore. ^ Ah, man ! when you 
get your new situation, when you set 
up your new home, when new cir- 
cumstances arrive in your life, it is 
grand to run up the flag of God's 
Son, and say: "This new situation — 
this new era in my life — will be the 
son of his Son." — John Robertson, 
D.D. 

230. God and Us, Something Be- 
tween. There is an old fable which 
says that once during an eclipse the 
moon complained to the sun, saying, 
"Why do you not shine upon me 
now as you used to?" The sun re- 
plied, "I am still shining; do you not 
enjoy my light?" "Oh! I see," said 



66 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



the moon, "the earth has got between 
us." Is not this the reason some lives 
are so frmtless? They have allowed 
the world to come between them and 
Christ, and their source of light is 
cut off. So they are unable to shine 
for others. They are ineffective in 
blessing others. — H. 

231. God, Can Use Life's Rem- 
nant. See Life, Its Second Chance. 



232. God, Character of. 
God, What He»Is Like. 



See 



233. God, Desired. "With all 
your heart." Do you know what 
that means? Let me tell you. A 
soldier who had been long in South- 
ern prisons called at my home after 
the war. I had met him first while 
we were prisoners in Charleston jail. 
Afterward we were together in the 
jail at Columbia. He had gone to 
Belle Island. Three years had 
passed; and now as we met once 
more, I asked him of his later prison 
experiences. 'T don't remember 
much about it, Chaplain," he said, 
"only that I wanted bread, I know 
it was twenty-three months after my 
capture before I was released. But 
after I left Columbia, it is all con- 
fused in my mind. I know I was 
at Belle Island a while, and a long 
time at Andersonville. 

"How hungry I was at Anderson- 
ville ! For a while I used to want 
to hear from home. Then I grew 
so hungry that I didn't think of 
home. For a while I wanted to es- 
cape. But by and by I was too hun- 
gry to care for that. I only wanted 
bread, bread, bread. Oh, how hungry 
I was and how much I longed for 
bread !" 

That, my friends, was longing for 
bread "with all the heart"— with one 
supreme, overmastering desire. Home 
and friends, and liberty and life, lost 
sight of, unthought of, in the cease- 
less craving for needful food ! 
Blessed are they who do thus hun- 
ger after the Bread of Life in Jesus 
Christ, "for they shall be filled" 
(Matt. 5:6). — Trumbull. 

234. God, Get Right With. A 

man came to me when I was in 
South Africa and he said, "Sir, I 
want to get relief from a guilty con- 
science," and he had an awful story 
to tell, a story that made me shud- 



der. He unfolded a page of his his- 
tory that I dare not tell you. Then 
he said, "Sir, I want God's pardon." 
I said, "My brother, how do you 
expect to get it?" He said, "By an 
honest attempt to undo the past." 
"Then," said I, "turn your face that 
way and wait for peace." "But," he 
said, "that will mean prison, and it 
may mean a hfetime in prison." I 
said, "Turn your face that way. It 
is no good to talk about peace while 
there is wrong to be righted, while 
there are stripes that need to be 
washed; it is no use to talk about 
peace till you get right with God. 
The Kingdom of God is not meat 
and drink, but righteousness and 
peace." Righteousness that means 
rightness, wholeness, harmony — and 
then the music. There will be no 
music till the instrument is put in 
tune. You know where you have 
to yield ; you know the point of con- 
troversy between you and God ; you 
know the thing that has hindered 
you; you know the thing that has 
darkened your sky; you know the 
thing that has come in between you 
and God; you know the thing about 
which you have persisted in having 
your own way and not God's. When 
you yield on that thing, you will re- 
pent. — Gipsy Smith. 

235. God First. A worker from 
New York who was visiting Elida 
Orphanage was one day telling the 
children how in that great city they 
had "Safety-First" put up everywhere 
to keep people from danger. On 
hearing this, one little fellow spoke 
up and said: "Down here we have 
'God First' " Perhaps the boy did 
not fully realize how true it is that 
the greater includes the lesser. He 
who puts God first in his Hfe is as- 
sured of safety. The Most High 
becomes his habitation, and no evil 
shall befall him. 

236. God, His Love for the Lost. 

It is always foolhardy and often 
fatal to run past a signal. The en- 
gineer who does it may wreck his 
train, and the pilot may ground his 
ship. It is told that a philanthro- 
pist of the alkali desert in the west 
of the United States spent years 
blazing paths to safety through the 
wilderness, and putting up sign- 
posts to guide the bewildered trav- 
eler. After he had planted a sign 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 67 



at every place of danger, he found 
that even that was not enough. Peo- 
ple were continually being lost in 
spite of the signs. He therefore de- 
voted the rest of his time to rescuing 
those who had missed the signs. It 
is a beautiful story, but is it not a 
parable in heroism of what God in 
his wondrous love has done for a 
lost world? Oh, heedless and fool- 
hardy brothers of Dives, how full the 
world is of you! "If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they be persuaded though one rose 
from the dead." When mankind 
failed to be warned by the Written 
Word, to seek and to save came 
the Living Word. Praise God for 
our divine St. Bernard and for his 
hospice of heaven. — Sunday-School 
Times. 

237. God, His Power to Save. 

"You cannot be sure that you're per- 
fectly saved 
Till you know you are utterly lost." 

How forcibly these lines were illus- 
trated in the experience of S. H. 
Hadley, the New York Rescue Mis- 
sion Worker. He said: "One Tues- 
day evening I sat in a saloon in 
Harlem, a homeless, friendless, dy- 
ing drunkard. I had pawned or 
sold everything that would bring a 
drink. I could not sleep unless I 
was dead drunk. I had not eaten 
for days, and for four nights pre- 
ceding I had suffered with delirium 
tremens, or the horrors, from mid- 
night till morning. I had often 
said, 'I will never be a tramp. I 
will never be cornered, for when 
that times comes, if ever it comes, 
I will find a home in the bottom of 
the river.' But the Lord so ordered 
it that when that time did come I 
was not able to walk one quarter of 
the way to the river. As I sat there 
jthinking, I seemed to feel some 
great and mighty presence. I did 
not know then what it was. I did 
learn afterwards that it was Jesus, 
the sinner's friend. I walked up to 
the bar and pounded it with my 
fist till I made the glasses rattle. 
Those who stood by drinking, looked 
on with scornful curiosity. I said 
I would never take another drink, 
if I died on the street, and really 
I felt as though that would happen 
before morning. Something said, 
*If you want to keep this promise, 



go and have yourself locked up.' I 
went to the nearest station-house 
and had myself locked up. ... A 
blessed whisper said, 'Come.' The 
devil said, 'Be careful.' I halted but 
a moment, and then, with a break- 
ing heart, I said, 'Dear Jesus, can 
you help me?' Never with mortal 
tongue can I describe that moment. 
Although up to that moment my 
soul had been filled with indescriba- 
ble gloom, I felt the glorious bright- 
ness of the noonday sun shine into 
my heart. I felt I was a free man. 
I felt that Christ with all his bright- 
ness and power had come into my 
life; that, indeed, old things had 
passed away and all things had be- 
come new." 

238. God, His Seeking Love. A 

large number of children are lost in 
New York eve^y year. The largest 
number ever sheltered at police 
headquarters in one year was in 
1892. Many little ones go to school 
for the first time and are too small 
to find their way home. They wan- 
der aimlessly about, and, finally 
tired out and discouraged, begin to 
cry. Here some officer takes a hand, 
and the child is brought to the cen- 
tral office. So it is with God's chil- 
dren. They wander about aimlessly 
for a few years, some many years. 
Sin-burdened and discouraged, they 
sink down by the wayside with bitter 
weeping. Here they find a hand 
that has been secretly following 
them, stretched out to help. They 
never realized before that help in 
time of need was so near at hand. 
Many travel the way of life and 
reach almost the end before they 
discover that God is so near. 

239. God Is Near. A busy 
mother one day went into her room, 
at twilight, her mind intent upon a 
long letter that she needed to write ; 
she sat down at her desk and began 
to fill page after page of note paper. 
Presently she heard a little sigh ; and 
turning her head, she saw her little 
son cuddled up in an arm chair. 

"Why, sonnie, how long have you 
been here?" she asked. 

"All the time, Mummie," the little 
fellow answered, "but you have been 
too busy to notice." 

How long has God been near and 
yet you have not realized or re- 
sponded to his preserice? 



68 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



240. God, Kinship With. A 
teacher had told of his failure to 
get close to people till he trained 
himself to speak plainly. At last 
came the day of success when he 
gathered the children about him and 
asked, "What kin is God to you, 
and what kin are you to God?" The 
sequel is told by the author of "In 
the Service of the King" : "More 
than one mother told him afterwards 
that her child came home all aglow 
to tell her the fact, now for the first 
time really made his own, 'I am 
God's child.' That word 'kin' had 
unlocked the doors of heaven for 
him." Speak plainly. 

241. God, Let Him Retune Your 
Heart. In the olden days a prince 
inherited his father's estate and, with 
his family and servants, took up his 
abode in the castle where his child- 
hood days had been spent. Well did 
he remember the long and happy 
evenings he had spent with the house- 
hold in the large family room! His 
father had secured the best musician 
in the land to build a magnificent 
harp in one end of that large family 
room. Now the prince secured the 
best musician he could find to bring 
joy to his household, with music 
from the harp. But the harp was 
out of tune and the musician could 
not tune it. Another musician was 
secured, but he failed also. Another 
and another tried, but with the same 
disappointment. 

With a sad heart the prince com- 
manded the old harp to be covered 
with a great curtain — a ruin of hap- 
pier days. 

But one evening an old man 
knocked at the castle gate asking 
shelter from the stormy night. He 
was invited to dine with the house- 
hold in the great family room. After 
supper he surprised the prince by 
asking why the great harp was cov- 
ered. "Alas," returned the prince, 
"it is out of tune, and instead of 
music it utters shrill screeches and 
nerve-racking discords and no one 
can tune it" "May I try?" the 
stranger asked. His request was 
granted. After an hour's work, the 
venerable old man asked the prince 
to assemble his family to hear the 
harp. And such music they had 
never heard! Clear, harmonious 
tones inspired their glad hearts. 

"Who are you, stranger," asked the 



prince, "and why can you tune this 
harp when all others in the realm 
failed?" "Because," the old mu- 
sician quietly answered, "I made the 
harp !" 

Are you conscious that your heart 
is out of tune — that your life is full 
of discord? God can retune your 
heart. Yield to him. Let him do 
it. He can make it over so it will 
produce sweet and gladdening music. 
— H. 

242. God, Never Sleeps. See 

Kept, Through God's Care. 

243. God, Welcoming Returning 
Sinners. God is ever ready to re- 
ceive back his wayward, wandering 
children. They are his children still. 
The lost sheep, in the parable, was 
a wandering member of the flock, not 
a goat. The lost money was a mis- 
placed piece of real silver, not a 
spurious coin. The lost son was a 
prodigal wanderer, to be sure, but he 
was a son, a member of the father's 
household, not an outsider. Rightly 
interpreted these parables apply to 
us straying, wandering, backslidden 
Christians, telling how anxiously 
God longs for our coming and how 
gladly he welcomes our return. I 
have often thought that if we were 
writing the parable of the prodigal 
son, how differently we would write 
it. We would have the son come 
home some dark night, and rap on 
his father's door; but no answer. 
The father hears him from within, 
but says to himself : "He was a long 
time coming back, I will be slow in 
answering, to try his earnestness." 
Again he would knock, louder. Still 
the father is silent. By and by he 
would go around to his father's win- 
dow, and tapping on the pane, would 
cry out so the echoes could be heard 
in the stillness of the night : "Father, 
let me in ; take me back ; I will serve 
you faithfully if you will but open 
unto me!" After a long time of 
waiting and a great deal of pleading 
we would have the father arise and 
let him in. But oh, how thankful 
we ought to be that this is not God's 
way ! He sees us even a long way 
off. He is watching for our return. 
And before we have time to make 
our confession he gives us the kiss 
of peace, puts a ring upon our fin- 
ger, the best robe upon us, and makes 
a feast of rejoicing. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 69 



Who of us can resist such love? 
Who stay in the "far country"? 
Christian, conscious of having wan- 
dered even the least, return, return. — 
H. 

244. God, What He Is Like. A 

missionary told how she was once 
describing the loving character of 
the Christian's God to a company of 
her Chinese sisters. As she went on 
in her holy enthusiasm, picturing 
God's real character as full of mercy 
to the sinful and suffering, one of 
the Chinese women turned to her 
neighbor and said, "Haven't I often 
told you that there ought to be a 
God like that?" 

245. God's Amnesty: No Ex- 
ceptions. George III issued a 
proclamation of amnesty during our 
Revolutionary War to all those in re- 
bellion except John Hancock and a 
few kindred spirits. God's amnesty 
makes no exception. Whosoever 
will may come and be saved on the 
condition of repentance and faith. 

246. God's Own, By Creation 
and Purchase. See Bought With 
Blood. 

247. Goodness, Made Attractive. 
In the wonderful old Church of St. 
Mark's, at Venice, is placed an ala- 
baster pillar said to have been saved 
from the ruins of Solomon's temple, 
and now used as part of the support 
of the high altar. It is cut in a beau- 
tiful spiral shaft of graceful propor- 
tions, and blossoms out at the top into 
an exquisitely _ carved capital. It 
stands bravely in its place, and bears 
its share of the weight. But your 
first thought is, "How beautiful !" 
Does not Jesus mean that we shall be 
beautiful as well as strong in his 
service? And do we take enough 
pains to make goodness attractive, 
and so adorn his doctrine "in all 
things"? Christ says, "And I, if I 
be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
me." Ought not we Christians to 
have more of this drawing power, 
not that we may draw others to our- 
selves personally, but through us to 
him whose image we daily pray to 
bear? — M. Deming. 

248. Gospel, Desired. After a 
recent concert given for the enter- 
tainment of soldiers, one of them was 



asked to propose a vote of thanks. 
He arose and said: "We are very 
grateful for the amusement afforded 
us to-night; and we appreciate all 
the musical talent brought for our 
enjoyment. But we are off to the 
front to-morrow ; and I do not know 
how to die. I am not prepared to 
meet God. I only wish there had 
been something for our souls." 

249. Gospel, Hungry For. When 
Mr. Sunday was in Philadelphia for 
one memorable day in March he cap- 
tured the hearts of the students of 
the University of Pennsylvania, and 
on Friday of his first week he went 
out again to meet them at their noon 
hour in the big gymnasium. When he 
stopped his address — he said it was 
not a sermon — so that the students 
might get something to eat, they 
shouted, "Go on ; go on ; we would 
rather hear you than eat." 

Do you know it, the people in this 
country are hungry for the gospel. — 
H. 

250. Gospel in the Home. Goe- 
the tells of a wonderful lamp which, 
when placed in a fisherman's hut, 
changed all within it to beauty and 
convenience. ^ So the Gospel of 
Christ, when it enters a home, glori- 
fies all its relationships and duties. 
It makes _ strength gentle, intellect 
careful, will righteous, and affection 
love.^ It sanctifies all trials and 
blessings. 

251. Grace Enough for Me. 

There is a story of a poor woman 
from the slums of London, who took 
her first trip to the seashore, and 
looked for the first time on the 
ocean. Tears were streaming down 
her face. And one standing by 
asked her why she was crying. "Oh, 
it is so wonderful !" she replied, "to 
see something that there is enough 
of." So we may stand to-day on 
the shore of the ocean of divine love, 
and as we look upon it in all its 
grandeur we also may shed tears, but 
of rejoicing, that at last we have 
found something there is enough of. 

252. Grace, Greatness of. An 

illiterate, debauched murderer, in 
prison for life, attended the prison- 
ers' night school. He developed a 
thirst for knowledge, became a fol- 
lower of Christ, studied mechanics, 



70 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



and for more than twenty-five years 
has been the chief engineer of the 
prison, without a single mark against 
him. God is great enough to put 
enough of his merciful love into a 
worthless murderous life to place 
that life in intimate association with 
his own beloved Son. 

253. Grace, Not Purchase. When 
Clara Barton was engaged in the 
Red Cross work in Cuba, during the 
Spanish-American War, ex-Presi- 
dent Roosevelt (then Colonel Roose- 
velt) came to her desiring to buy 
some delicacies for the sick and 
wounded men under his command. 
His request was refused. Roosevelt 
was troubled; he loved his men and 
was ready to pay for the supplies 
out of his own pocket. "How can I 
get these things ?" he said ; "I must 
have proper food for my sick men." 
"Just ask for them, Colonel," said 
the surgeon in charge of the Red 
Cross headquarters. "Oh," said 
Roosevelt, his face breaking into a 
smile, "then I do ask for them." 
And he got them at once ; but you 
notice that he got them through 
grace, and not through purchase. If 
men could buy the grace of a quiet 
conscience and a restful heart, how 
the millionaires would vie with each 
other at such an auction ; but no one 
can have this chain of heaven's gold 
except by the free grace of God, 
which is offered to us every^ one. 
Salvation is not for sale. But it can 
be had. Ask.— H. 

254. Grace, Offered. Lincoln's 
proclamation of amnesty to the Con- 
federates was issued regardless of 
their desire for it. Some held out 
for years. Some never accepted it. 
But it was theirs for the taking all 
the time. So with God's grace. 

255. Grace, Wonder of. "Mary," 
said a minister, addressing a colored 
convert, "is not the love of God 
wonderful? — is it not wonderful?" 
She replied, "I do not think it is so 
wonderful, because it is just like 
him!" 

256. Hand, Touch of. Some rude 
children in Madagascar were one day 
calling out, "A leper! A leper!" to 
a poor woman who had lost all her 
fingers and toes by the dread dis- 
ease. A missionary lady who was 
near by put her hand on the woman's 



shoulder and asked her to sit down 
on the grass by her. The woman 
fell sobbing, overcome by emotion, 
and cried out, "A human hand has 
touched me." The missionary says 
that in that moment it flashed across 
her mind why it is recorded in the 
Gospels that Jesus touched the leper. 
That is just what others would not 
do. It was the touch of sympathy 
as well as of healing power. 

257. Heart, a New. Physical 
hearts can be repaired. A man was 
brought in a dying condition to a 
hospital in Philadelphia, his heart 
stabbed in two places. He was un- 
conscious, and pulseless from the loss 
of blood. He was at once operated 
upon, and four stitches were taken in 
the heart muscles. He completely 
recovered (this has been verified for 
the Editor by the surgeon in 
charge) and was discharged from the 
hospital feeling quite well except for 
the weakness that might be expected 
after such an ordeal. His heart ap- 
peared to be in fair condition, and 
his blood pressure was about nor- 
mal. We may well thank God for 
the wonders that he enables modern 
physicians and surgeons to accom- 
plish. But we thank him still more 
for his spiritual operations. The 
physical heart can be repaired, but 
not the spiritual heart : when that is 
injured by sin it is beyond repair. 
And so God does better than repair 
imperfect hearts : he replaces them. 
This is the offer of the Great Phy- 
sician : "I will take the stony heart 
out of their flesh, and will give them 
a heart of flesh ; that they may walk 
in my statutes, and keep my ordi- 
nances, and do them : and they shall 
be my people, and I will be their 
God" (Ezek. 2:19, 20). Again he 
says, "A new heart also will I give 
you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you" (Ezek. 36:26). David 
knew his own need when he cried 
unto God, out of the black hopeless- 
ness and helplessness of his own sin- 
ning. "Create in me a clean heart, 
O God." Creating something new is 
better than repairing the old and 
this "new creation" in Christ is the 
wonder-work that God would have 
us all receive. — Sunday School 
Times. 

258. Heart, Christ Dwelling 
Within. A widow woman lives by 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 71 



herself in a little cottage by the sea- 
shore. Of all whom she loved, only 
one survives — a lad at sea ; all the 
rest have passed "from sunshine to 
the sunless land." She has not set 
her eyes on him for years. But her 
heart is full of him. She thinks of 
him by day and dreams of him by 
night. His name is never left out 
from her prayers. The winds speak 
about him; the stars speak about 
him ; the waves speak about him, both 
in storm and in calm. No one has 
difficulty in understanding how her 
boy dwells in her heart. Let that 
stand as a parable of what may be 
for every believer in the Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. — J. Culross, 
D.D. 

259. Heart, Desired. "My son, 
give me thine heart." Prov. 23 : 26. 
There is a story of a colored man 
who came to a watchmaker and gave 
him the hands of a clock, saying, *T 
want yer to fix up dese hands. Dey 
jest doan' keep no mo' kerrec' time 
for mo' den six monfs." "Where 
is the clock?" answered the watch- 
maker. "Out at de house on Injun 
Creek." "But I must have the clock." 
"Didn't I tell yer dar's nuffin' de 
matter wid the clock 'ceptin' de ban's ? 
And I done brought 'em to yer. You 
jes' want the clock so you can tinker 
wit it and charge me a big price. 
Give me back dem ban's." Foolish 
as this man was, his caution is very 
like that of people who try to regu- 
late their life without being made 
right on the inside. And their reason 
for not putting themselves into the 
hands of the Lord is very similar to 
the reason the colored man gave. 
They are afraid the price will he 
too great. They say, "We only wish 
to avoid this or that habit." But the 
Master Workman says, "I cannot 
regulate the hands unless I have the 
heart." — Christian Herald. 

260. Heart, Desiring God. See 
God, Desired. 

261. Heart-Door Opened. See 

Door of the Heart. 

262. Heart, Hardening of. The 

persistent refusal to obey God and 
to do the right results in the harden- 
ing of the human heart. There is 
nothing to perplex us about the ques- 
tion, "What hardened Pharaoh's 



heart?" He had one opportunity 
after another to do what he knew 
God wanted him to do, but he re- 
fused. Persistent perseverance in do- 
ing his own will, and refusing to do 
God's will, hardened his heart. It 
developed into a bad habit. By his 
own perverse willfulness he strength- 
ened his heart against the Lord, and 
his resistance grew stronger every 
day. It is possible that we may do 
the same thing to-day. 

263. Heart, Need of New. There 
must be a change of heart. A man 
buys a farm and he finds on the farm 
a pump. He goes to the pump and 
begins to pump. A person comes 
along and says, "Look here, my 
friend, you don't want to use that 
water. The man who lived here be- 
fore, he used that water, and it 
poisoned him and his wife and chil- 
dren." 

"Is that so ?" said the man. "Well, 
I will soon make that right. I will 
find a remedy." And he goes and 
gets some paint and paints the pump, 
putties up all the holes, and fills up 
the cracks in it, and now he has a 
fine looking pump. And he says, 
"Now I am sure it is all right." 

You would say, "What a fool to go 
and paint the pump when the water 
is bad." But that is what sinners 
are trying to do. They are trying to 
paint up the old pump that has al- 
ways given bad water. It was a new 
well the man wanted, and the sin- 
ner needs a new heart. 

264. Heart, Need of Right. A 

lady who had lost a little daughter 
took a photograph and painted it 
with rare skill, and laid it in a 
drawer, and was grieved to find that 
soon afterwards it was covered with 
ugly blotches. She painted it again 
and it was soon marred. There was 
something wrong with the paper, 
some chemical ingredients in undue 
proportions. No matter how beauti- 
ful the picture made on its surface, 
ever up out of the heart of the pa- 
per would come the ooze of decay. 
So with human life, the heart being 
wrong spoils all. — J. R. Miller, D.D. 

265. Heart, Returned by God. 

See God, Let Him Return Your 
Heart. 

266. Hearts, Conquered by 
Christ. A gentleman in New York 



72 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



had a fine copy of Hoffman's "Jesus 
Talking to the Doctors." One day 
a judge of the Supreme Court came 
in on business. He was instantly at- 
tracted by the picture on the easel. 
His eyes would go back to it, as he 
talked, again and again. Later in the 
morning he came back again and said, 
"I want to see that Boy again." I 
said, "Take it into my private office 
and look at it as long as you want 
to." An hour passed, and then he 
came out and laid the picture down, 
with tears running down his face, 
and said, "The Boy has conquered 
me," and he went out to become an 
earnest Christian devoted to the 
Master. — Speer. 

267. Hindering Others. At mid- 
night there was a cry of "fire," and 
a large hotel was found wrapped in 
flames. Heroic men rushed to the 
spot, battled with the flames and res- 
cued many of the inmates of the 
burning house. But in an upper room 
were a man, his wife, and a child. 
The man locked, and barred his door, 
and would neither leave the room 
himself nor suffer his wife or child 
to leave it. He also effectually re- 
sisted the efforts of those who would 
have entered to save them. You will 
say this man was either a madman 
or a fool. What then will you say 
of him who by conscious influence, 
or unconscious example, prevents 
those around him from escaping from 
the destruction which will overtake 
those who remain in sin? 

268. Holy Ghost Preparation. 

To-day, when so much is being said 
about religious education, the tend- 
ency on the part of many religious 
workers is to shift the emphasis and 
neglect the great essential — the work 
of the Holy Spirit, who is the source 
of wisdom, spiritual power and sal- 
vation. The church that fails to 
emphasize the doctrine of the Holy 
Spirit loses her revival and spiritual 
energy. On the day of Pentecost, 
they were all filled with the Holy 
Ghost. H we would have Pente- 
costal power, we must depend upon 
the same source. Religious educa- 
tion, church organization, equipment, 
and machinery are not enough. We 
must remember that it is "not by 
might, nor by power, but by my 
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." "It 
is the Spirit that quickeneth, the 



flesh profiteth nothing." — Religious 
Telescope. 

269. Holy Spirit, Grieving. Once 
a man who owned a beautiful house 
ihvited one of his friends to come 
and live with him. He provided for 
his guest a room, a bed to sleep in, 
and a place at his table. By and by, 
though, he met another man, who 
charmed him, so he invited this one 
also to come and stay with him. 
He went to the one that he had in- 
vited first and asked that he share 
his room with the stranger; a little 
while afterward he was asked to 
give up his bed for the same pur- 
pose ; then to surrender his place at 
the table. We are not surprised to 
know that, deeply grieved, he left 
the house altogether. 

Thus has many a man crowded the 
blessed Guest from his heart. When 
the world begins to war with the 
Spirit for the possession of your 
heart, beware lest the Holy One be 
grieved and take his departure. — 
Mattie M. Boteler. 

270. Hurry, in Salvation. There 
was a fire in a terrace of houses in 
the middle of the night, and one man 
discovering the fire, cried to his bed 
companion, "Get up at once, the house 
next door but one is on fire i" "Oh,- 
wait till it gets next door," growled 
his sleepy friend. No one wishing to 
be saved can take that attitude. — H. 

271. Indecision, or Hopeful 
Cases. Some of the most hopeful 
features of a soul's condition may 
be accompanied by the most threat- 
ening and awful dangers. One is 
lest the soul slip back again from this 
hopeful state. Do you "remember 
Lot's wife?" God told us to do so. 
In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," 
the reader will recall, one of the com- 
pany came suddenly upon a pillar of 
salt, which they told him was Lot's 
wife. Do you remember that Pil- 
grim's name? Think a moment, for 
the name is very suggestive. The 
name is just Hopeful. Hopeful was 
the one who needed the lesson of 
Lot's wife most. How many of these 
hopeful cases have we seen, young 
men and young women, older men 
and older women, who at the critical 
moment turned back — gave up their 
efforts to follow Christ. A hopeful 
state is a state with grave dangers. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 73 



Another danger is lest the awak- 
ened soul be content to stop at the 
spot that has been reached. Not far 
from the kingdom is not in the king- 
dom. Almost saved is not altogether 
saved. It is altogether lost. The 
man in the snow storm on the Da- 
kota prairie was "lost_ in sight of 
home." After safely circumnavigat- 
ing the globe the Royal Charter 
went to pieces on the coast of Wales, 
almost into the harbor. Nearness is 
not possession. Almost saved is not 
saved. It is a dangerous thing for 
an awakened sinner to stop where 
he is. — H. 

272. Indecision, Years of. See 

Decision, Need of. 

273. Influence, Christian. A 

Christian lady at Long Branch was 
invited to attend a dance. She said 
**No." Finally a senator tried to per- 
suade her to attend. "Senator," said 
the lady, "I am a Christian; I never 
do anything in my summer vacation, 
or wherever I go, which will injure 
the influence I have over the girls 
in my Sunday-school class." The 
senator bowed and said : 'T honor 
you. If there were more Christians 
like you, more men like myself 
would become Christians." 

274. Influence, Given to Christ. 
I know a young man who confessed 
Christ, and within a week his ex- 
ample and influence were instrumental 
in leading eighteen young men to do 
the same thing. 

In the battle of life many a one 
falls because he cannot see the col- 
ors ; because there is no one near to 
reinforce his failing courage ; no one 
whose clear, strong convictions make 
the truth seem truer, and right more 
righteous, and Jesus Christ more 
real. He who tries to serve Christ 
secretly is robbing the world of a 
certain influence which it sadly needs. 

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say 
so," then, for their own sakes, for 
the sake of the unredeemed, but 
above all, for the sake of the Re- 
deemer. — Rev. Howard W. Pope. 

275. Influence, Good and Bad. 

A man with his little son was going 
along a country road on a dark, star- 
less night. Dark as the night was, 
the boy noticed a still darker spot 
near by, and, drawing closer to his 



father, asked what it was. The fa- 
ther replied: "That is an empty 
house ; an empty house at night is 
always darker than no house at all." 
And how true that is in the world 
of morals ! The Hghts from some 
lives shine on the pathway of men 
and make the way easier ; but all that 
some others contribute to men is 
shadows and intensified darkness in a 
darkened world. Think of your use- 
fulness. Com.e to Christ and get his 
light. Shine for him, and bless 
others. Don't stay in the dark and 
make darkness darker. — H. 

276. Influence, Unconscious. 

Friends had tried again and again to 
get one of the, worst fellows at a 
soldiers' camp in France to attend 
the Y, M, C. A. meetings, but he 
would not come. One night, how- 
ever, he appeared when the secre- 
tary was speaking. When asked 
why he came that night he said, "I 
saw that fellow washing dishes one 
day when there was a rush at the 
counter, and I am ready to listen to 
a man who is big enough to do that." 
The secretary did not think when he 
washed the dishes that day that he 
was doing any special good to any 
one; but here was a soldier watch- 
ing him, ready to be influenced for 
good by him. — Christian Herald. 

I'jT, Influence, Unconscious. 

The Family Altar has a story of an 
unusual conversion. A young woman 
came before the session of a Pres- 
byterian church and said she wished 
to unite with that church. No one 
present knew her ; she made an un- 
usually clear confession of faith, im- 
pressing the minister so much that 
he asked her how she had been led 
to Christ. "Through Dr. S.," she 
replied. *Ts Dr. S. a friend of 
yours?" she was asked. *'No," she 
said, "I have never met or even seen 
him," She was a telephone opera- 
tor, and had had night service, from 
9 p.m, to 3 a,m. Receiving many 
calls for this physician, Dr. S., she 
had more than once rung his bell by 
mistake. Always he answered, not 
only with courtesy, but in a voice 
that showed no trace of impatience. 
It was such a grateful relief from the 
surly, sleepy voices of others awak- 
ened at midnight or the harsh ex- 
pressions directed at her when she 
called a wrong number by mistake, 



74 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



that she finally became deeply inter- 
ested and wanted to know the se- 
cret of the difference between Dr. 
S., and other men. She made in- 
quiries about him, until she learned 
that Christ was supreme in his heart 
and Hfe, and that what she was so 
admiring in him was simply Christ 
living in an earnest Christian. Soon 
Dr. S.'s Saviour was her Saviour. 
Herein is a suggestion for those who 
have telephones and are sometimes 
annoyed by untimely calls. 

278. Immediateness of Religion. 

"Immediately — I sent to thee." Acts 
10:33. One word reveals the man. 
He did not dilly-dally about his 
soul's welfare. When Roosevelt was 
president he said that when he wanted 
a thing done he sent for a soldier. 
That is how he got the Panama 
Canal dug. The earnest man never 
delays. This type of man compels 
success. Never loses a moment in 
attending to things, especially in 
matters of the soul. General Frank 
P. Blair, after Hstening to a sermon 
in a Fifth Avenue, New York, 
church stood up before the congre- 
gation and said, "I want to accept 
Jesus Christ as my Saviour here and 
now, and confess him before men." 
That was the splendid soldier of it 
for you. Cornelius sent for his 
friends. In Washington, Secretary 
of State invited Billy Sunday to his 
house to tell the old, old story, and 
he sent for his friends in the official 
life of the capital. Cornelius was 
the "big man" of Csesarea. ^ He was 
a Roman, rich and influential. You 
may be sure all the invited ones 
were there. Cornelius is one of the 
most refreshing men in the Book of 
Acts.— R. 

279. Insensibility Deplored. My 

friends, I would as soon possess the 
heart of a murderer, of a traitor, 
nay, of a fiend, as a heart which 
turns cold and insensible from a 
crucified Redeemer — from bleeding, 
dying love — from the perfection of 
moral beauty and excellence. — Rev. 
Edward Payson, D.D. 

280. Invitation, Come, Then Go. 

"Him that cometh to me I will in 
no wise cast out." A little boy who 
saw for the first time the ;sign, 
"Common," in Boston, at the en- 
trance of the great park known as 



Boston Common, called out joyfully, 
"It don't say, 'Keep Off the Grass'; 
but 'Come on' !" And this is the 
gospel invitation. Not "Keep off," 
but "Come on." An interested lis- 
tener said to Mr. Moody, *'One might 
think that the word 'Come' was your 
pet text." "I have two; one is 
'Come' and the other is 'Go,' " was 
the answer. "Come for cleansing 
and acceptance. Go into service. Go 
and get others to come." 

281. Invitation, Gospel. "But 
they made light of it." Matt. 22:5. 
It was the King's invitation. 

"They made light of it." They 
thought they were judging the King. 
They were not. Who were they 
judging? Listen. A tourist went 
to "do" one of the picture galleries 
in Florence. He went round looking 
at this picture and that and then 
when he came to the door to go out, 
he said to the old man who had 
kept the pictures for many a year, "I 
do not think much of your pic- 
tures." "Oh," said the old man, 
"that does not matter, sir; the pic- 
tures are not up for judgment, but 
the visitors are." Yes, my brethren, 
Jesus Christ is not up for judgment 
and criticism, but the visitors are. — H. 



282. Invitation, Gospel. 

Come, Say It. 



See 



283. Invitation, the Universal. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' phrase, 
"The Gates Ajar," doesn't do justice 
to the wide-open love and mercy of 
my Father's house of many mansions. 
One of the poets makes us sing: 

"Wondrous love ! Oh, can it be 
The gate of heaven's ajar for me?" 

Isaiah fifty-five is not a gate "ajar." 
I remember how at one of the great 
State Christian Endeavor conventions 
I attended, in an immense skating- 
rink, the waiting crowd in front 
filled the sidewalk and the street, 
singing gospel hymns to pass away 
the time until the doors should swing 
open. And, when I'.ie ushers opened 
the doors, it was found that they 
stuck at the bottom, and would not 
swing back far enough. And the 
crowd was choked in the entrance 
until some one cried, "Take those 
doors off their hinges ; lift them 
right up !" And a dozen pairs of 
strong hands seized the obstructing 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 75 



doors; and they were raised aloft, 
right off the butt hinges, and set 
aside, and with a shout of dehght the 
eager throng swept in. 

if Isaiah found the "gates ajar," 
he lifted them off their hinges, in 
this wonderful chapter, and set them 
in the corner. Isaiah fifty-five might 
be called the "Ho, every one" chap- 
ter. — Rev. John F. Cowan, D.D. 

284. Invitation to Christ Not 
Given. See Soul, a Neglected. 

285. Invitations, of the Gospel. 

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters, and he that hath 
no money ; come ye, buy, and eat ; 
yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
out money and without price." Isa. 
55 : 1. These Gospel bells, like those 
around the high-priest's garment, are 
bells of invitation. When the Jews 
heard the clash of those bells in the 
hem of the priest's robe, they knew 
it was an invitation to worship. That 
is the meaning of every church tower, 
from San Francisco to New York, 
and from London to St. Petersburg. 
It is "Come, come !" The word 
"come" occurs six hundred and 
forty-two times in the Bible. It is 
"Come to the supper" ; "Come to the 
waters"; "The Spirit and the Bride 
say Come." Through all sorrows, 
through all trials, through all nights 
of darkness, through all calamities, 
through all temptations, it rings out. 
"Come ! Come ! Come !" — T. DeWitt 
Talmage, D.D. 

286. Invitations, to Christ. 
"Him that cometh to me I will in 
no wise cast out." In the deserts, 
when caravans are in want of water, 
they send a rider some distance 
ahead; then, after a little space, an- 
other follows ; and then, at a short 
distance, another. As soon as the 
first rnan finds water, before he stoops 
to drink, he shouts aloud, "Come !" 
The next one repeats the word, 
"Come!" So the shout is passed 
along until the whole wilderness 
echoes with the word "Come !" 

287. Judgment, Cannot Be 
Avoided. The Roman Emperor 
Antoninus once said to Rabbi Judah 
the Prince, "On the great day of 
judgment, soul and body will each 
plead excuse for sin committed. The 
body will say to the heavenly Judge, 



Tt is the soul, and not I, that has 
sinned. Without it I am as lifeless 
as a stone.' On the other hand, the 
soul will say, 'How canst thou im- 
pute sin to me? It is the body that 
has dragged me down.' " 

"Let me tell you a parable," an- 
swered Rabbi Judah the Prince. "A 
king once had a beautiful garden 
stocked with the choicest fruits. He 
set two men to keep guard over it 
— a blind man and a lame man. 'I 
see some fine fruit yonder,' said the 
lame man one day. 'Come up on my 
shoulder,' said the blind man. T 
will carry you to the spot, and we 
shall both enjoy the fruit' The 
owner, missing the fruit, haled both 
men before him for punishment. 
'How could I have been the thief,' 
queried the lame man, 'seeing that I 
cannot walk?' 'Could I have stolen 
the fruit?* retorted the blind man. 
'I am unable to see anything.' What 
did the king? He placed the lame 
man on the shoulders of the blind 
man and sentenced them both as one." 

In the same way will the divine 
Judge of the universe m.ete out judg- 
ment to body and soul jointly. — Dr. 
J. H. Hertz. 

288. Judgment, Not Delayed. 

A lady who once needed legal coun- 
sel was advised to consult a promi- 
nent lawyer. She kept putting it off, 
and when she finally went to him 
and began to state her case, he said, 
"Madam, you are too late. I cannot 
be your advocate, for I have been 
appointed your judge." God for- 
bid that the Judge of all the earth 
should apply such words to any of 
us. 

289. Jesus, Friendship With. 

Dr. J. R. Miller, the well-known 
author of many fine devotional books, 
made this the text of his talks and 
essays: "Religion means just one 
thing to me, Jesus and I are friends." 
That is a safe and central fact out 
of which all true religious life and 
experience must grow. It is a blessed 
relation that will remain unbroken. 
A friend loveth at all times. More- 
over, Jesus calls us friends, and he 
himself is a friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother. This relation of 
friendship with Jesus, in the true 
and substantial sense, is based on 
an obedient disposition of the will 
towards him. "Ye are my friends, 



76 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



if ye do whatsoever I command you." 
Abraham was called the friend of 
God because, in obedience to the di- 
vine will, he offered up his son Isaac 
in holy sacrifice. To be a friend of 
Jesus means much, but to have Jesus 
for a friend means more, because he 
is infinitely greater than we. 

290. Jesus Saves. In July, 1916, 
I was asked to go for a fortnight to 
the Canadian soldiers, who were en- 
camped at the great camp at Val- 
cartier, not many miles from Quebec. 
One night — I shall never forget it — 
it was the last but one — I spoke in 
the Y. M. C. A. tent to a body of 
men soon to pass over the ocean — 
line upon line of closely packed sol- 
diers in khaki; strong, serious men 
rolling out the standard hymns of 
the English-speaking race, "Abide 
With Me," "Stand Up, Stand Up for 
Jesus." I pleaded with them to give 
their hearts to the Saviour, and not 
to be ashamed of him who died for 
them. I remembered something I 
heard the Rev. Sydney Selwyn tell 
many years ago. "Men," I said, 
"men, I want you to do something 
for me!" There was instant hush. 
Every face looked up with curious 
interest. "Now look here, I am go- 
ing to repeat to you five letters ; and 
I want you to repeat to me five 
words. You understand? As I say 
the letter, you all answer with a loud 
voice the word. Now I will say the 
letters and you say the words. 

J — Jesus 
E — Exactly 
S— Suits 
U— Us 
S — Sinners 

Eyes all around were moist with 
inexpressible emotion, and here and 
there tears dropped silently. They 
were no longer heroes. They were 
no longer soldiers of romance. The 
glamour of war had vanished. They 
were just hungry souls, needy souls, 
yearning souls, souls for whom Christ 
died. 

Next night was my last. It was 
Wednesday, August 2, 1916. The 
great canvas auditorium was crowded 
with soldiers, Protestant and Cath- 
olic, English-speaking and French- 
Canadians all. I told them once more 
of Christ the living King, ever able 
to save and keep, and then I re- 
minded them of the words I had 



given them the night before. "Now, 
men," I said, "I want you to do one 
thing more for me. It's the last 
thing I shall ever ask you to do. As 
I give you the five letters, I want 
you to repeat after me the five words 
which I shall give you. Now, all 
together!" And all together, as in a 
tumultuous antiphone, the voices an- 
swered mine : 

J — Jesus 
E— Exactly 
S — Suits 

U— Us 

S — Sinners 

The men who tented there that 
summer crossed the ocean, and in 
many cases their bodies lie "Over 
There." But never will the writer 
forget the quiver of buoyant hope 
that passed through that mass of sol- 
diers, soon to go forth in the death- 
less cause of liberty and right. — 
Dyron Hague. 

291. Jesus Shut Out. I remem- 
ber hearing some years ago of an 
incident which occurred near Inver- 
ness. A beautiful yacht had been 
sailing in the Moray Firth. The 
owners of it — two young men — 
landed at Inverness, purposing to 
take a walking tour through the 
Highlands. But they lost their way, 
and darkness found them wandering 
aimlessly about in a very desolate 
spot. At last, about midnight, they 
fortunately came upon a little cottage, 
at the door of which they knocked 
long and loudly for admittance. But 
the inmates were all in bed and 
curtly the young men were told to 
go elsewhere and make no more dis- 
turbance there. Luckily, they found 
shelter in another house some dis- 
tance away. But next morning the 
inhospitable people heard a rumor 
that filled them with chagrin and 
gave them a lesson which they would 
not be likely to soon forget. What 
do you think it was ? Just this : that 
the two young men who knocked in 
vain at their door the previous night 
were Prince George and his brother, 
the late Duke of Clarence — the most 
illustrious visitors in the kingdom. 
You can fancy the shame the people 
must have felt thus unconsciously to 
have shown themselves so inhospita- 
ble to the noblest persons in all the 
land. But are we any better? Are 
we not, indeed, much worse if we 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 77 



shut Jesus Christ, the greatest of all 
Kings, out of our hearts? 

292. Kept, by the Power of God. 

Dr. H. Clay Trumbull used to tell 
with keen pleasure of the glimpse 
he once had of the secret of Napo- 
leon's power over his soldiers. Hap- 
pening to meet a French veteran who 
had served under the great com- 
mander, Dr. Trumbull asked him : 
"Did Napoleon's soldiers like him?" 
"Like him!" exclaimed the old 
Frenchman, straightening up, his eyes 
snapping excitedly. "Like him ! We 
believed in him. Napoleon say: *Go 
to the moon.' Every soldier start. 
Napoleon find the way," And we 
have a Commander who is greater 
than Napoleon. Start out in the 
Christian life, friend, and Christ will 
find the way. "Kept." "Kept by the 
power of God." "Through faith." 
"Unto Salvation." — H. 

293. Kept, Through God*s Care. 

The story is told of a poor woman 
who applied to the Sultan of Turkey 
and asked compensation for the loss 
of her property. "How did you lose 
it?" he inquired. "I fell asleep and 
robbers came and stole it." "But why 
did you fall asleep?" he queried. "I 
fell asleep because I believed that you 
were awake," was the astonishing re- 
ply. The Sultan was pleased with 
her trust, it is said, and restored her 
goods. Human governments are sup- 
posed never to slumber. They are 
supposed to be alert to protect their 
subjects. But they fail. God's gov- 
ernment never fails. He never slum- 
bers. He is always "keeping watch 
above his own." 

294. Knock Neglected. There 
was an old turnpike man in a quiet 
country road whose habit was to shut 
his gate at night and take a nap. 
One dark, wet night I knocked at 
his door, crying, "Gate! Gate!" 
"Coming," said the voice of the old 
man. Then I knocked again, and 
once more the voice replied, "Com- 
ing." This went on for some time, 
till at length I opened the door and 
demanded to know why he cried, 
"Coming," for so long and never 
came. "Who's there?" said the old 
man in a sleepy voice. "What d'ye 
want, sir?" Then, awakening, "Bless 
yer, sir, and yer pardon; I was 
asleep. I get so used to hearing them 



knock that I answer 'Coming' in my 
sleep, and take no more notice about 
it." So it is with too many hearers 
of the Gospel, who hear by habit, 
and answer God by habit, and at 
length die with their souls asleep. — 
Sunday-School Chronicle. 

295. Knocking, in Vain. See 
Jesus Shut Out. 

296. Learning to Love God. A 

little maiden once came to Mark Guy 
Pearse in great distress because, as 
she said, she could not love Jesus 
Christ. She did want to love him, 
but somehow she couldn't. So the 
genial minister said to her: "Well, 
my little woman, don't keep think- 
ing about your love to Jesus, but just 
keep on saying, 'Jesus loves me.' 
Say it to yourself over and over 
again ; and come and see me to-mor- 
row." The little girl did as she was 
told, and when she came to see Mr. 
Pearse the next day there was no 
need to tell him of the change that 
had taken place. Her face was radi- 
ant. The love of God had been 
shed abroad in her heart by the Holy 
Spirit which had been given to her. 
We can learn to love God. Think 
of his love. "We love him because 
he first loved us." — H. 

297. Life, from God. In the pic- 
ture of the creation of man on the 
Sistine Chapel ceiling, says Dr. Bur- 
rell, the man is represented as lying 
upon a mossy mound reaching up his 
hand towards another stretched down 
from heaven, and from the hand of 
the Creator an electric spark is pass- 
ing to him. The beginning of life 
is to be thrilled by the life of God, 
and to proclaim the fact to the world 
by lip and life. 

298. Life, Its Second Chance. 

A distinguished musician ordered a 
manufacturer of violins to make for 
him the best instrument possible. He 
told him to use the best material, 
take all the time he wished, and use 
all his skill in its construction. 

At last the manufacturer sent for 
the musician to come and try the 
violin. As the musician drew the 
bow across the instrument his face 
became clouded. Lifting the instru- 
ment, he smashed it to pieces on the 
counter, handed the price to the man- 
ufacturer and left the shop. 



78 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



The manufacturer was not satis- 
fied with mere pay, his reputation was 
at stake. He gathered the fragments 
of the vioHn and put them together. 
After he had remade the viohn out 
of the pieces, he again sent for the 
musician. This time the frown was 
not seen ; as he drew the bow across 
the strings he told the manufacturer 
that he had succeeded at last in mak- 
ing just the kind of an instrument 
that he desired. "What is the price ?" 
inquired the musician. "Nothing at 
all," replied the manufacturer; "it 
is the same instrument that you 
smashed to pieces some time ago ; I 
put it together, and out of the frag- 
ments this perfect music has been 
made." 

Let us believe the parable. God 
can take the fragments of a shat- 
tered life, and by his grace put them 
together so that under the touch of 
his Holy Spirit there will go forth 
music good enough for earth and 
Heaven. — A. C. Dixon, D.D. 

299. Life Spared for Salvation. 

See Waiting, To Be Saved. 

300. Life, Testifying to Christ. 

Apelles and Protogenes were two 
great painters living in Rhodes, 
Apelles the more famous. One day 
Protogenes determined to paint a pic- 
ture that would outdo Apelles. The 
conception in his mind, he worked 
away day after day, until his picture 
was nearly completed. While putting 
on the finishing touches he was called 
away from his studio for several 
hours. While he was gone his friend 
Apelles came in. His eye at once 
caught the beauty of the picture. 
He snatched up the brush and began 
to touch up the canvas. Soon he had 
a more beautiful picture than Pro- 
togenes had conceived of. Then, 
hiding himself, he waited for his 
friend's return. Protogenes, on see- 
ing his picture, started back in amaze- 
ment. Then he cried: "Apelles has 
been here, for no one could have done 
this but Apelles." 

So none could paint on the canvas 
of life as Christ did. Others had 
tried to beautify the world, but the 
touch of Christ upon the life of a 
man or woman leads us to exclaim 
unhesitatingly : "Jesus Christ has been 
here, for no one else could have done 
this." — Rev. G. H. Hilton. 



301. Life, the Unsatisfied. There 
is said to be a strange plant in South 
America which finds a moist place 
and sends its roots down, and be- 
comes green for a little while until 
the place becomes dry, when it draws 
itself out and rolls itself up and is 
blown along by the wind until it 
comes to another moist place, where 
it repeats the same process. On and 
on the plant goes, stopping wherever 
it finds a little water until the spot 
is dry; then in the end, after all its 
wanderings, it is nothing but a bun- 
dle of dry roots and leaves. It is 
the same with those who drink only 
of this world's springs. They drink 
and thirst again, and go on from 
spring to spring, blown by the winds 
of passion and desire, and at last 
their souls are nothing but bundles 
of unsatisfied desires and burning 
thirsts. 

Come to Christ. Drink from the 
fountain of life and be satisfied. — H. 

302. Lord, Call Him. In Acts 
10 : 14 we read, "Peter said, Not so. 
Lord." Have you ever thought of 
what a contradiction in terms we 
have there? You have either got to 
drop the words "Not so," or you 
have got to drop the word "Lord." 
I spent two hours yesterday with a 
lady in this tent over these words, 
and then I wrote them down in the 
margin of her Bible at the bottom 
of the page; and I handed her the 
Bible and the pencil and I said, 
"The time has come for you to make 
the decision. Are you going to score 
out the words. Not so, or the word 
Lord? You must do one or the 
other." There was a great struggle 
in her heart, and through tears she 
scored out the words "Not so." I 
said, "What have you got left?" and 
she said, "The Lord." Is not the 
Lord enough? — Rev. W. Graham 

SCROGGIE. 

303. Loyalty, to Christ. When 
Queen Victoria had just ascended her 
throne she went, as is the custom of 
royalty, to hear "The Messiah" ren- 
dered. She had been instructed as 
to her conduct by those who knew, 
and was told that she must not rise 
when the others stood at the singing 
of the Hallelujah Chorus. When 
that magnificent chorus was being 
sung and the singers were shouting 
"Halleluj ah ! Halleluj ah ! Hallelu- 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 79 



jah! for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth," she sat with great diffi- 
culty. It seemed as if she would 
rise in spite of the custom of kings 
and queens, but finally when they 
came to that part of the chorus where 
with a shout they proclaim him King 
of kings suddenly the young queen 
rose and stood with bowed head, as 
if she would take her own crown 
from off her head and cast it at his 
feet. Let us make him King and 
every day be loyal to him. This is 
the secret of peace. — J. Wilbur 
Chapman, D.D. 

304. Love, Constraint of. "Him 
that Cometh unto me I will in no 
wise cast out." John d-.Zl. A man 
who had been converted from a sin- 
ful life gave this experience of his 
acceptance with Jesus: "I just crept 
to the feet of Jesus, and, greatly to 
my astonishment, he did not scold 
me — he knew I had been scolded 
enough ; and he didn't pity me ; and 
he didn't give me any advice either. 
He knew I had had plenty of that. 
He just put his arms around my 
neck and loved me. And when the 
sun arose I was a new man." 

305. Love for Christ Confessed. 
Do you not feel as if you wanted to 
do something to make the "Man of 
Sorrows" a "Man of Joy"? Pro- 
claim, then, everywhere, and as often 
as you can, that you are his friend, 
and that he is your Redeemer. Does 
a wife ever tire of hearing her hus- 
band say that he loves her? Neither 
does Jesus ever grow weary of hear- 
ing our profession of love and faith 
in him. Neglect to do it grieves the 
Saviour, and robs him of exceeding 
joy. It also robs him of our influence. 

306. Love, from the King. In 

Gipsy Smith's autobiography, he re- 
lates this incident : "On another oc- 
casion we went to see the King re- 
viewing his troops. Amid all the 
military show one little incident 
touched me most. A little sweep 
came running past the spot where the 
King was on his horse. His face 
was black and his feet were bare, but 
as he passed the monarch of Sweden 
he raised his dirty hand and saluted 
his sovereign. The King smiled 
upon the little fellow and returned 
the salute. Immediately afterwards 
a dashing officer came galloping up 



on a fine horse. His uniform shone 
like gold, and his sword rattled as 
he careered bravely along. He also 
saluted the King. The King saluted 
back with all the dignity of a sov- 
ereign, but I thought I missed the 
kindly gleam of the eye with which 
he had greeted the waving of the 
little sweep's dirty hand, and I said 
to myself, 'This King loves the little 
sweep as much as the fine officer, and 
I love him for it.' " Thus it is with 
our King Jesus. "There can be 
neither Jew nor Greek, there can be 
neither bond nor free, ... for ye all 
are one man in Christ Jesus." 

This King loves us every one. — H. 

307. Love, God's Love Awakens 
Ours. "We love him because he 
ftrst loved us." 1 John 4 : 19. A 
little girl was playing with her doll 
while mother was writing. After a 
while the mother called the child and 
took her on her lap. The little one 
said : "I am so glad ; I wanted to love 
you so much, mamma." 

"Did you, darling," and she clasped 
her tenderly. 'T am glad my daugh- 
ter loves me so : but were you lonely 
while I wrote? _ You and dolly 
seemed to be having a happy time 
together." 

"Yes, mamma; but I got tired of 
loving her." 

"And why?" 

"Oh, because she never loves me 
back." 

"And that is why you love me?" 

"That is one why, mamma ; but 
not the first one or the best." 

"And what is the first one and 
best?" 

"Why, mamma, don't you guess?" 
and the blue eyes were very bright 
and earnest. "It's because you loved 
me when I was too little to love 
back ; that's why I love you so." 

This is an outliving of the very 
truth of the Gospel. While we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us, and 
we love God because he first loved 
us. It is the love of God for us 
that awakens and feeds our love for 
him. 

308. Love Makes Lovely. See 
Transformed by Love. 

309. Love, of Father. At the 

conclusion of a Sunday evening serv- 
ice some months ago, a gentleman 
came to me to thank me for the ser- 



8o 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



mon. Pointing to a magnificent 
specimen of manhood in khaki, with 
the tears trembhng in his eyes and 
trembling in his voice, he said : "He 
is only eighteen. He's my only son. 
I never knew before the meaning of 
'God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son.' I know 
now." His only son, whom he pas- 
sionately loved, for the sake of his 
country he had laid on the altar of 
sacrifice, and had entered somewhat 
into the meaning of God's sacrifice 
when he gave his Son up to the death 
of the cross that we might be re- 
deemed and saved. — A. Clark. 

310. Love, Serving from. See 
Redeemer, Serving One. 

311. Love, That Seeks and Cares. 

See God, His Seeking Love. 

312. Love, Wins Hearts. The 

way to win hearts is to show kind 
attentions and utter kind sentiments. 
"You have called me brother!" cried 
the Russian beggar radiantly, who had 
just begged of Tolstoi without re- 
ceiving anything. "I am sorry, my 
brother," said Tolstoi, "but I do not 
have a single copeck about me." 
"You have gj^ven me more than I 
asked for," was the joyous answer. 
"I asked for a few coins, and you 
have called me brother." — Pilgrim 
Teacher. 

313. Loving God, With All the 
Heart. "Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind." Luke 10 : 27. 
Suppose a mother gave her child a 
beautiful flower plant in bloom, and 
told her to carry it to a sick friend. 
The child takes it away, and when 
she reaches the friend's door she 
plucks off one leaf and gives it to 
her, keeping the plant herself. Has 
she obeyed her mother's command? 
Then, afterward, once a day, she 
plucks off another leaf, or a bud, or 
a flower ; and takes to the friend, 
still retaining the plant. Did she obey 
the command of her mother? Noth- 
ing but the giving of the whole plant 
could fulfill the mother's directions. 
Is that not a simple illustration of 
what we give God? He commands 
us to love him with all our heart and 
with all our being, and we pluck off 



a little leaf of love now and then, a 
little bud or flower of affection, or 
one cluster of fruit from the bending 
branches, and give it to him, and we 
call that obeying.— Rev. J. R. Miller, 
D.D. 

314. Lukewarmness, Not Suffi- 
cient. At what temperature does 
water boil? But is two hundred and 
twelve degrees really necessary? 
Surely water would boil if subjected 
long enough to a temperature of one 
hundred and fifty degrees, would it 
not? No? Then one-hundred-and- 
fifty-degree water cannot be of much 
use in doing the world's work. O. S. 
Marden says : "Lukewarmness in his 
work stands in the sam.e relation to 
man's achievement as lukewarm water 
does to a locomotive boiler. No one 
can hope to accomplish anything 
great in the world until he throws 
his whole soul into it." Business 
men have no use for lukewarm em- 
ployees ; they want those whose en- 
ergy and enthusiasm are always at 
boiling point — ^the point where things 
are done. 

Then isn't it reasonable to think 
that God wants boiling-point Chris- 
tians for his work? In fact, he tells 
us that he cannot abide a lukewarm 
Christian. 

315. Man, Each One Counts. 

"The story is told in an old Tamil 
book of twelve Brahmans, on a pil- 
grimage, who, while crossing a 
stream, escaped with great difficulty. 
Uncertain if all were alive, one of 
the pilgrims counted his companions : 
'Ondru, rendu, mundru, nalo, ainthu, 
aru, eru, ettu, onpathu pathinondru !' 
thus giving the numerals from one 
to eleven. 'Alas, there are but eleven 
of us, and one of us must be 
drowned !' 

"But who was missing? All re- 
sponded to their names. A second 
pilgrim ranged his comrades in line, 
and counted. The result was the 
same. There were only eleven men ; 
and yet they were certain that no one 
was missing. 

" 'Let me count !' said a third 
Brahman. When he had finished he 
declared that somebody was dead. 
Much puzzled, the men agreed to 
consult a hermit who lived near. 

"The hermit asked them to stand 
in a row while she counted: 'Ondru, 
rendu, mundru, nalu, ainthu, aru, eru. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 8i 



ettu, onpathu, pathu, pathinondru, 
panirendu ! 

" 'Why, there are twelve of you !' 
she said. 'It is all right' 

"It was not an easy matter to con- 
vince them, but they finally admitted 
their error when they found tnat each 
one of them haa lorgotten to count 
himself !"' 

The late Jacob Chamberlin in tell- 
ing the story, in "The Kingdom in 
India," asked: "Do not we, fellow 
Christians, too often fall into this 
very Brahman dullness, and in God's 
work each fail to count himself or 
herself? If there is real work to 
be done 'for Christ and the Church' 
are we not prone diligently and re- 
peatedly to count all the others, and 
perhaps unconsciously neglect to 
count ourselves?" 

The commission of the Master is, 
"Ye shall be my witnesses." We 
hear, but are so apt to interpret the 
message as applying to any one, 
every one, but ourselves. How many 
Christians, thus leaving themselves 
out of the count, take no part in 
the God-given work of seeking the 
lost? What of our opportunities to 
witness for Christ to those we meet 
in the home, in business, or when 
we are seeking our pleasure? Since 
God says, "Ye," let us be careful to 
count ourselves in, that we, too, may 
have a part in bringing the answer 
to our own prayer, "Thy Kingdom 
come." — Rev. John T. Ferris, D.D. 

316. Man, Pricing Himself. "Be- 
cause thou hast sold thyself." 

**Still, as of old, man by himself is 

priced ; 
For thirty pieces, Judas sold himself 

—not Christ." 

317. Man, Sinful. Remember 
Boswell's remark to Johnson : "Don't 
you think, sir, that man is naturally 
good?" "No," was the answer, "no 
more than a wolf." 

318. Men, Led to Christ. Mr. 

Marshall Hudson, founder of the 
Baraca movement, spent a Sunday 
in Old Forge, N. Y., a small village 
in the Adirondack Mountains, in the 
early fall of 1911. At the close of 
the evening service five young men 
came to his room to see him with 
regard to some committee work in 
connection with a Baraca class they. 



were organizing. Very tactfully Mr. 
Hudson inquired how many ot these 
five were L.nristians. He lound that 
not one of tneiu nad made a decision 
to follow Christ, then Mr. Huason 
suggested that it they desired to be 
etiicient workers in the Baraca worK 
they ought to be Christian young 
men. 

The young fellows were deeply im- 
pressed ^vith his kindly manner and 
profound earnestness. The appeal of 
the veteran teacher, who has learned 
from long experience how to deal 
with men, was effective. Before they 
parted that night each of the five 
bowed with Mr. Hudson in prayer 
and accepted Jesus Christ as a per- 
sonal Saviour. Mr. Hudson counted 
that day in a little \Illage well spent. 
The passion of the soul-winner found 
expression in speaking a word in sea- 
son. The opportunity to win a soul 
for Christ often comes to the man 
who yearns to win his fellow-men 
for his Master. — ^William J. Hart, 
D.D. 

319. Mercy, God's Plenteous. 

The daughter of a poor widow had 
left her mother's cottage. Led astray 
by others, she had forsaken the 
Guide of her youth and forgotten 
the covenant of her God. Fervent, 
believing prayer was the mother's 
only resource, nor was it in vain. 
Touched by a sense of sin, and anx- 
ious to regain the peace she had 
lost, late one night the daughter re- 
turned home. It was midnight, and 
she was surprised to find the door 
unlatched. But she was told in the 
fullness of a mother's heart, "Never, 
my child, by night, nor by day, has 
that door been fastened since you 
left. I believed you would come 
back some day, and I was unwilling 
to keep you waiting for a single mo- 
ment." 

"For thou. Lord, art good, and 
ready to forgive, and plenteous in 
mercy unto all them that call upon 
thee." Christ is as willing to receive 
you as this poor mother was to re- 
ceive her daughter. 

320. Mercy, Plea for. A maiden 
plead with Napoleon for the life of 
her father, a deserter, condemned to 
be executed. A frown gathered 
upon Napoleon's brow as he an- 
swered: "He has already twice dfe- 
serted and do you ask his, UiQ^" 



82 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



"Sire," she answered, "I do not ask 
for justice but for mercy.'* 

321. Method With Children. See 
Children. Brother Them. Sister 
Them. 

322. Minister and Evangelist. A 
little child fell from the path into 
the canal. A young woman, who 
alone saw the child, ran, threw her- 
self upon the wall, and grasped the 
child's arm. She had not sufficient 
strength to lift him to the walk. 
Her utmost energies were taxed to 
keep his head above the water. For 
more than twenty minutes she was in 
this position, when a man heard her 
cry and raised the child to a place 
of safety. Yet the village, when the 
incident became known, applauded 
and honored the girl as the rescuer. 
Preacher, if you first succeed in 
keeping these boys* lives above the 
engulfing current of sensuality and 
vice by your utmost endeavors, some 
pastor or evangelist may come along 
and lift them into safety, and the 
community may call them his con- 
verts, but some day in heaven you 
shall be acknowledged as the rescuer 
of their lives. — Forest E. Dager, D.D, 

323. Missionaries, All Christians. 
A Bishop asked a returned mission- 
ary: "How many missionaries have 
you now on your stations?" "Three 
thousand," was the reply. "I did not 
ask you how many converts, but how 
many missionaries," said the bishop. 
"I understand, and again I can re- 
ply three thousand, for all our con- 
verts are missionaries." In an im- 
portant sense, the missionary was 
correct. It should be the desire and 
effort of the already won to win 
others to Christ. 

324. Money or Christ? A very 
nice young man, so moral and kind 
in his life, and so interested and sin- 
cere in his coming that Jesus loved 
him, wanted to know what he should 
do to become a Christian. Knowing 
the one thing that hindered his spirit- 
ual life, which was the love of money, 
Jesus told him to sell all that he had 
— he was a very rich man — and fol- 
low him. To this bit of counsel, 
which was the Saviour's answer to 
the young man's question as to how 
he might be saved, there was no re- 
sponse. The young man went away, 



sad, not being willing to make the 
exchange of money for fellowship 
with Jesus. What a sad mistake was 
that. Dear friend, if you are look- 
ing for the way of life, which is 
Jesus himself, let nothing you have 
or desire keep the door of your 
heart barred against your best friend. 



, 325. 
Love. 



Mother, Her Changeless 

See Cross, The Message of. 



326. Motive, for Christian Life. 

See Jesus, Friendship With. 

327. Morality, Not Enough. All 

religious acts are certainly good acts, 
but it cannot follow that all good 
acts are religious acts. The appear- 
ance of a deed may have been good 
and yet the design — the motive — 
may have been evil. To illustrate, 
I read an incident the other day, 
which is as follows : 

"A young man met a minister of 
his acquaintance and in the course 
of their conversation he told the 
minister that he was not a very bad 
young man, for, said he, T have been 
doing a great many good things.* 
'Well,' said the minister, T have no 
disposition to dispute that, but your 
good acts were not religious acts — 
nor is it any evidence that you are 
a Christian.* The young man seemed 
surprised. 

*' 'You are the owner of a horse, 
are you not?* 

" *Yes.' 

" 'Does he not do many good acts?* 

" 'Yes.* 

" 'Is your horse a Christian V 

" 'Well,' he replied, 'about as much 
of a one as I am, I guess.' " 

The young man saw the point, and 
admitted that a good act in man or 
beast is a good thing, but nothing 
more. It is nature and not grace, 
instinct and not holiness. A good 
character is a good thing, education 
is a good thing, money is a good 
thing, but these things, good as they 
are, will not carry a man to heaven, 
but they will come just as near doing 
so as mere morality will. 

328. Mystery in Salvation. Some 
men want to have the new birth and 
all the theological mysteries explained 
to them. Explain electricity to me, 
or sit in the dark till you understand 
it, and never ride in an electric car 
till you can understand it. Explain 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 83 



the dewdrop; tell me how the thun- 
der and the lightning slumber in the 
dewdrop. You cannot tell. Analyze 
the dewdrop. You cannot, but God 
fathers it. Tell how he kisses the 
little bit of black earth in your gar- 
den, and after he has kissed it a 
bunch of primroses bloom. Tell me 
how he did it, or stop your quibbles 
about this. Here is an easy one. 
Tell me how he came to my gipsy 
tent where there was not a Bible, 
before I could spell my name, before 
I had ever heard of him. That is 
the wonder. Tell me how he got 
hold of my father, that grand old 
saint, when he was rough and raw, 
drunken, swearing, wild and lion- 
like. Tell me how God in Christ 
got hold of him and won the chil- 
dren and saved us all, and made 
these eyes, these inner eyes of my 
life, see him and know he was my 
Saviour. Tell me how, will you? I 
do not know how, but I know he 
did it, and that is enough to go on 
with. Never mind the how of it. 
It must be — must be. — Gipsy Smith. 

329. Needs, Bible Mirrors Our. 
See Bible, a Mirror. 

330. Neglect. Neglect, plain, 
simple neglect, has bred more havoc 
in almost more ways than many 
other causes combined. Neglect of 
civility at a proper time has lost a 
friend. Neglect of a simple duty at 
a critical moment has often lost an 
ambitious young man a position. 
Neglect of the laws of health has lost 
a life. Neglect of a free salvation 
has lost a soul. It matters not 
whether the neglect arises from heed- 
lessness, indifference, carelessness, 
willfulness, or ignorance, the result, 
in most instances, is the same. The 
moral of it all is that we have no 
right to be heedless, or indifferent, or 
willful. 

331. Neglect, of a Soul. I will 
never as long as I live forget a scene 
that I witnessed several years ago. 
I left the tent where we were hold- 
ing meetings down in Paris, Illinois, 
one night, and among the number 
who left last was a young man to 
whom I was especially attracted by 
his fine looks. I walked down the 
street with him, and put to him the 
invariable question, "Are you a 
Christian?" He said, "No, sir, I am 



not." Then I used every Scripture 
and every argument to get him to 
promise me to give his heart to God, 
but could not succeed. When about 
to separate I said to him, "Are your 
father and mother alive?" "Both 
alive," said he. 'Ts your father a 
Christian?" ^"Don't know; has been 
a steward in the church several 
years." "Is your mother a Chris- 
tian ?" "Don't know ; has been super- 
intendent of the Sunday School of 
the same church for some time." 
"Have you a sister?" "Yes, sir." 
"Is she a Christian?" "Don't know; 
she has the primary department in 
the Sabbath School." "Do your 
father and mother ever ask the bless- 
ing at the table?" "No, sir." "Did 
your father, mother, or sister ever 
ask you to be a Christian?" "Mr. 
Sunday, as long as I can remember, 
my father or mother or sister never 
said a word to me about my soul. 
Do you believe they think I am lost ?" 
I could not answer such arguments, 
and I can hear his words still ringing 
in my ears, "Do you believe they 
think I am lost?"— Rev. W. A. Sun- 
day, D.D. 

332. Neutrality, Avoid It. The 

story has been told of a soldier who 
was missed amid the bustle of a bat- 
tle, and no one knew what had be- 
come of him, but it was known that 
he was not in the ranks. As soon 
as opportunity offered, his officer 
went in search of him, and, to his 
surprise, found that the man during 
a battle had been amusing himself 
in a flower garden. When it was 
demanded what he did there, he ex- 
cused himself by saying, "Sir, I am 
doing no harm." But he was tried, 
convicted and shot.^ What a sad but 
true picture this is of many who 
waste their time and neglect their 
duty, and who can give no better 
answer than, "Lord, I am doing no 
harm !" 

333. Now, Though Young. A 

young girl visiting the country was 
following the farmer's wife along a 
winding, half overgrown path amid 
a winding tangle of wild flowers. 
The young visitor exclaimed at their 
variety and beauty. "I mean to 
gather all I can carry when we come 
back and have a little more time," 
she said. "Better pick them now, if 
you want them," said the elder 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



woman. "It isn't likely we'll come 
back this way." It was one of those 
simple, homely incidents that some- 
times seem to epitomize life. We 
must pick now if we want them at 
all, the flowers of grace and salva- 
tion that God scatters along our way. 

334. Now, Importance of. "To- 
day, if ye will hear his voice, harden 
not your hearts."— Ps. 95 : 7, 8. It is 
a solemn thing to say to-morrow 
when God says to-day, for man's to- 
morrow and God's to-day never meet. 
The word that comes from the eter- 
nal throne is "NOW," and it is man's 
own choice that fixes his doom. — 
Duncan Matheson. 

335. Nurture of Young Converts. 

See Revival, After the. 

336. Obedience Brings Blessing. 

God wants obedience. Naaman had 
to learn this lesson. There was no 
virtue, probably, in going down to 
the Jordan any more than in obey- 
ing the voice of God. He had to 
obey the Word, and in the very act 
of obedience he was blessed. 

Look at those ten New Testament 
lepers who came to Christ. He said, 
"Go show yourselves to the priests." 
"Well," they might have said, "what 
good is that going to do us? Here 
we are all full of leprosy, and if we 
go and show ourselves to the priests, 
they will order us back again into 
exile. That is not going to help us." 
But those ten men started off and 
did just what the Lord Jesus Christ 
told them to do, and in the very act 
of doing it they were blessed, their 
leprosy left them. 

He said to that man who had the 
palsy, whom they brought unto him 
on a bed: "Take up thy bed and 
walk." The man might have said : 
"Lord, I have been trying for years 
to take that bed up, but I can't. I 
haven't got the power. I have been 
shaking with the palsy for the last 
ten years. Do you think that if I 
could have rolled up that bed that I 
would have been brought here and 
let down through the roof ? I haven't 
the power." 

But when the Lord commanded 
him he gave the power. Power came 
with the command, and that man 
stood up, rolled up his bed and 
started off home. He was blessed 
in the very act of obedience. If you 



want God to bless you, obey him. 
Do whatsoever he calls upon you to 
do, and then see if he will not bless 
you.— The Christian Observer. 

337. Obeying Christ, Saved in 

the Act of. A young lady was 
deeply concerned about her spiritual 
welfare, and after a severe struggle 
started to visit her pastor to ask 
him to show her the way of life. 
As she entered the trolley-car, in 
carrying out her purpose, she saw 
seated there several of her friends, 
who asked where she was going. The 
tempter immediately said : "Don't tell 
them where you are going, but an- 
swer them in some evasive way." At 
the same time the Spirit whispered 
to her, "Be brave and conscientious 
about this. Tell them of your pur- 
pose, and ask them to go with you." 
She obeyed the voice of God. Her 
friends declined to accompany her, 
and she went on alone. When she 
came to the minister's house he came 
to the door to meet her. She paused 
from embarrassment for an instant, 
and then said: "Doctor, I started to 
come to see you to ask you to lead 
me to Christ; but now that I am 
here I have come to tell you I have 
found Christ." It was with her as 
with some whom Jesus healed during 
his ministry on earth — "As they went 
they were cleansed." 

338. Offer, Accept the First. A 

teacher in a mission school in Africa 
had just explained the parable of the 
king who invited people to his feast. 
One of the large boys said he wanted 
to follow Jesus, and the little boy 
said the same. "Have you felt for 
some time that Jesus has been calling 
you?" asked the teacher. "Oh, no; 
it is only to-day ; but I listened right 
off when he called," was the sincere 
answer. 

That is the time to answer, when 
you hear the call. Do it promptly. 
Do it at once. Accept the first offer. 
— H. 

339. Offer, Accept the First. 

Not ^ long since, as a minister was 
visiting one of his parishioners, who 
was a man of business, the following 
conversation substantially occurred : 
"It is true," said the merchant, "I 
am not satisfied with my present con- 
dition; I am not 'of a settled mind 
in religion,' as you express it. Still 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 85 



I am not utterly hopeless; I may- 
yet enter the vineyard, even at the 
eleventh hour." "Ah! Your allu- 
sion is to the Saviour's parable of the 
loitering laborers, who wrought one 
hour at the end of the day. But you 
overlooked the fact that these men 
accepted the first offer." "Is that 
so?" "Certainly; they said to the 
Lord of the vineyard, 'No man hath 
hired us.' They welcomed the first 
offer immediately." "True, I had 
not thought of that before. But, 
then, the thief on the cross, even 
while dying, was saved." "Yes, but 
it is Hkely he had never rejected the 
offer of salvation as preached by 
Christ and his apostles. Like Barab- 
bas, he had been a robber by pro- 
fession. In the resorts to which he 
had been accustomed the gospel had 
never been preached. Is there not 
some reason to believe that he, too, 
accepted the first offer?" "Why, you 
seem desirous to quench my last spark 
of hope." ^ "Why should I not? 
Such hope is an illusion ! You have 
really no promise of acceptance at 
some future time. Now is the ac- 
cepted time! Begin now!" "How 
shall I begin?" "Just as the poor 
leper did when he met Jesus by the 
way and committed his body to the 
Great Physician in order to be healed. 
So commit your soul to him as a 
present Saviour. Then serve him 
from love. The next, even the most 
common duty of life that you have 
to perform, do it as a service to him. 
Will you accept the first offer ? Your 
eyes are open to the peril. Beware 
of delay — beware." "You are right; 
may God help me. I fear I have been 
living in a kind of dreamy delusion 
on this subject." 

340. Opportunity, a Lost. A 

few summers ago my Adirondack 
driver, Harvey, died, and a sad, sad 
death it was for me. The old fellow 
had driven me many a mile through 
that glorious country, but never on 
any of those drives till the last had 
I attempted to talk with him on the 
subject of his personal salvation. 
That afternoon I climbed over into 
the seat next to him and went at it 
in earnest. Harvey grew nervous 
and began to whip his horses as a 
kind of relief, saying little in reply 
till I finally extracted from him a 
promise to come and hear the sermon 
I had promised the village pastor to 



preach the next Sunday evening in 
the little mountain church. And with 
that the drive ended. 

The very next morning a neighbor 
came in to call and told us, in the 
course of the conversation, that Har- 
vey had been taken ill in the night 
and had been pronounced by the doc- 
tor in a critical condition. The caller 
gone, I started out to see him, but 
was not admitted. "No one is al- 
lowed to see him to-day," they said, 
and I went back home with a bur- 
dened heart. The next day he was 
worse and, of course, I could not 
see him. The third day he passed 
away. The following evening I 
preached my sermon in the little 
church, but it was an absent-minded 
sermon to whicli the people listened. 
My thoughts ran down the mountain 
road to the humble farm house where 
Harvey's body lay cold in death. 
Monday afternoon we held his fu- 
neral and I was asked to take some 
part in the service. I felt I could 
not pray, nor could I trust myself 
to speak, and without giving the rea- 
son I chose as my part the reading 
of the Scriptures. The service over, 
I formed in line with the others out 
of respect for the deceased and filed 
past his coffin. When I approached 
the bier, though, I shut my eyes for 
very shame, fearing to look even the 
dead man in the face, instead of the 
engraved inscription on the casket 
plate which would otherwise have 
been in sight, I read another inscrip- 
tion set there by a divine hand, A 
Lost Opportunity! 

Believe me, I felt then, as I feel 
still, that it was far more of a lost 
opportunity for me than for old 
Harvey. — Rev. John Balcom Shaw, 
D.D. 

341. Opportunity, An Undiscov- 
ered. See Strategy Wins a Boy. 

342. Opportunity, for Soul Win- 
ning. A young girl in London 
spoke kindly to a little boy in rags 
playing in the gutter. She won his 
confidence, and by and by won him 
for Christ, who made a great pioneer 
missionary out of him. Yet most 
people would have thought that girl's 
opportunity when she spoke to the 
ragged child was very small, and 
that the Archbishop of Canterbury 
that day had the great opportunity 
afforded in all London, He does not 



86 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



give us any gauge by which to meas- 
ure opportunities. — Bishop Haygood. 

343. Opportunity, Neglected. 

"Immediately." Matt. 4:22. There 
are times when if we do not answer 
God's call immediately the opportun- 
ity is gone forever, leaving a lifelong 
regret. As I passed through a pleas- 
ant street God told me to give his 
message to an old man who was sit- 
ting on a lawn. I thought I might 
be mistaken, and passed on to take 
a car, but found I had no money, 
so returned and spoke to him. Some 
ladies who were on a veranda, hidden 
by vines, began to talk to me, and 
I knew they would hear all I said. 
Alas ! I had been told, times without 
number, that one should not ask a 
person if he were a Christian, or in- 
vite him to come to Christ, when 
others were present, as it might do 
more harm than good. I sat on the 
steps and talked with the ladies about 
the life hid with Christ in God, but 
the old man went away, and in a 
few hours was struck by an express- 
train and was killed immediately.^ I 
then learned he was not a Christian. 
— N. C. Alger. 

344. Opportunity, Now. Dr. 

Matheson once said that it is a sol- 
emn thing to say "to-morrow" when 
God says "to-day," because man's to- 
morrow and God's to-day never meet. 

345. Opportunity, Now. In a 
certain church, on a summer Sunday, 
was a Bible-class enroUing sixty 
members. The next Sunday only 
eighteen were living. Forty-two had 
gone into eternity. They had learned 
their last Bible lesson, and improved 
or neglected their last opportunity 
for salvation. How earnestly would 
that elder have taught, how earnestly 
would that class have listened to God's 
truth had they known that it was 
for two out of every three of them 
the last time ! The Bible-class was in 
Johnstown, Pa. "The night cometh" 
for all. 

346. Opportunity, Now. When 
the great bridge in St. Louis was 
nearly completed, it was found that 
the two halves of the structure 
would not quite meet in the center. 
An engineer was sent to New York 
to consult authorities in the emer- 
gency. While he was trying to as- 
certain where the error lay, he re- 



ceived a telegram telling him that the 
warmth of the sun had expanded the 
iron so that the two ends had come 
together. As quickly as the telegraph 
could carry the message he sent back 
word, "Clamp them ;" and it was done. 
When the Holy Spirit works in the 
Church, then is the time to take 
advantage. Now is the time. Now 
is the time to get into the kingdom 
those for whom you have been work- 
ing so long, as also many others in 
the community. 

347. Parasitism. "Very well, 
then," you say, "if I have gotten 
along thus far by receiving the in- 
direct influences and help of the 
Church without being a member of 
it, why can't I get along just as well 
in the future by pursuing the same 
course? The reflected Hght of the 
Church is good enough for me." 

Professor Henry Drummond, in 
his brilliant essay on "Parasitism," 
has a reply for you. He speaks of 
a little bit of degenerate animal, 
called the sacculina. It possesses 
neither legs, nor eyes, nor mouth, nor 
throat, nor any other organs, external 
or internal. The sacculina is a typi- 
cal parasite. "By means of its twin- 
ing and theftuous roots it imbibes 
automatically its nourishment ready 
prepared from the body of the her- 
mit crab. It boards indeed entirely 
at the expense of his host, who sup- 
plies it liberally with food and shelter 
and everything else it wants." 

Be not a parasite ! Do not drink 
nourishment from the Church and 
refuse to take up your responsibili- 
ties as a member thereof ! — ^John Y, 
EWART, D.D. 

348. Pardon, and New Start. 

See Sin, Blotted Out. 

349. Pardon, Peace of. See 

Pardon, Through Christ. 

350. Pardon, Power of. A sol- 
dier who had ofte-i been punished 
for disobedience was about to be 
brought again before the command- 
ing officer for discipline. The officer 
said, "What shall we do with him? 
Every ordeal has been tried." 

"There is one thing," said the ser- 
geant major, "which has never yet 
been done," 

"What is that?" 

"He has never yet been forgiven.*' 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 87 



The colonel called for the offender, 
and asked what he had to say for 
himself. 

"Nothing, only that I am sorry." 

After some suitable remarks, the 
colonel said, "Well, we have resolved 
to forgive you." The soldier was as- 
tonished, and, weeping, thanked the 
officer for his kindness. Never after 
that was any charge brought against 
him. 

This story should teach us that we 
can often, by love, win back those 
who have strayed far from the right 
path. It should also remind us of 
the love of God, who for Christ's 
sake will freely pardon all who are 
sorry for their sins. 

As the sergeant pleaded for the 
soldier, so has Christ pleaded for us. 
He has done more than one man 
could do for another — he has died 
to secure our pardon. 

351. Pardon, Through Christ. 

In the reign of Charles I a prisoner 
was brought to trial and the jury 
found him "Guilty." Throughout 
the proceedings the condemned man 
remained calm and unconcerned, and 
even when the sentence was passed 
he said nothing. Then, producing a 
paper from his pocket, he handed it 
to the judge. It was the King's full 
pardon which a messenger had 
brought in time to set him free. 
With that in his pocket he feared 
nothing. So in our day of judg- 
ment, if we have Christ's free par- 
don for sin we shall not be afraid 
of anything. 

352. Partners, Silent. See Con- 
fess Christ. 

353. Peace Pact, The. One of 

the incidents of war recorded in the 
papers was the mutual helpfulness 
of two wounded soldiers, one a Ger- 
man and one a Frenchman, who as 
they lay near each other cheered each 
other with the words, as one gave 
the other drink to cool his fever and 
they clasped hands, "There will be no 
war on the other side!" 

There will be no war on the other 
side. There will be no war among 
men, and no war in the individual 
soul of man when we truly accept 
Christ, who is the Prince of Peace. 

354. Pearls, Not Bread. An 

Arab once lost his way in the desert. 



His provisions were soon exhausted. 
For two days and two nights he had 
not a morsel to eat. He began to 
fear that he should die of hunger. 
He looked eagerly, but in vain, along 
the level sand for some caravan of 
travelers from whom he might beg 
some bread. At last he came to a 
place where there was a little water 
in a well, and around the well the 
marks of an encampment. Some 
people had lately pitched their tents 
there, and gathered them up and 
gone away again. The starving Arab 
looked around in the hope of finding 
some food that the travelers might 
have left behind. After searching a 
while he came upon a little bag tied 
at the mouth, and full of something 
that felt hard and round. He opened 
the bag with great joy, thinking it 
contained either dates or nuts, and 
expecting that with them he should 
be able to satisfy his hunger. But 
as soon as he saw what the sack 
contained he threw it on the ground 
in bitter disappointment, and cried 
out in despair, "It is only pearls," 
falling down on the desert to die. 

In the great crisis of life this 
world's^ most prized things are only 
mockeries. If we cannot have bread, 
the bread of life, we shall perish. — 
Rev. J. R. Miller, D.D. 

355. Pearl, of Great Price. U. 

Bor. Sing, heir of the rajah of 
Cherry, India, was converted by the 
Welsh missionaries. He was warned 
that in joining the Christians he 
would forfeit his right to the throne 
of Cherry after the then ruling 
prince. After the death of Rham 
Sing, the chiefs of the tribes met 
and unanimously decided that Bor. 
Sing was entitled to succeed him, but 
that his Christian profession stood in 
the way. Messenger after messen- 
ger was sent, urging him to recant, 
and they would all acknowledge him 
as king. His answer was : "Put 
aside my Christian profession? I 
can put aside my head-dress or my 
cloak, but as for the covenant I have 
made with my God, I cannot for any 
consideration put that aside." Since 
then he has been impoverished by 
litigations, but is of course a ChriS" 
tian still. 

356. Penitence, Cry of. "God 

be merciful to me a sinner." Luke 
18 : 13. Two men went up into the 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



temple to pray; the Pharisee was 
proud; the publican humble. One 
trusted in himself ; the other in God. 
One despised his fallen fellow men; 
the other felt he was the chief of 
sinners. One thanked God he was 
not an extortioner, and adulterer, a 
poor, wretched sinner like this publi- 
can ; while the other cried out the 
shortest but most comprehensive 
prayer ever uttered : "God be merci- 
ful to me a sinner." Only one re- 
turned to his home from the house 
of God justified, "for every one that 
exalteth himself shall be abased, and 
he that humbleth himself shall be 
exalted." 

He who is satisfied with himself, 
ever repeating the egotistical "I," has 
only himself for his blessing. But 
the soul, in the depths of its sinful- 
ness, with its knees in the dust of 
penitence, who hungers and thirsts 
for the living God, shall be filled and 
satisfied with the fullness of heavenly 
loving-kindness. 

Jesus delighted to be styled an as- 
sociate with publicans and sinners, 
for he came not to save the righteous 
but to bring sinners to repentance. 
How much better it is to own that 
we are a race of prodigals, living 
on husks and hogs, self and sin, in 
the far country, but now are coming 
home, crying out, "Be merciful; 
wash me; cleanse me; renew a right 
spirit within me and cast me not 
away from thy presence, that I may 
dwell in the Father's house forever." 
— E. W. C. 

357. Penitent, His First Effort. 

In every building the first stone must 
be laid and the first blow must be 
struck. The ark was 120 years in 
building; yet there was a day when 
Noah laid his axe at the first tree 
he cut down to form it. The temple 
of Solomon was a glorious building; 
but there was a day when the first 
huge stone was laid at the foot of 
Mount Moriah. When does the 
building of the Spirit really begin 
to appear in a man's heart? It be- 
gins, so far as we can judge, when 
he first pours out his heart to God 
in prayer. — R. 

358. Persistence, in Christian 
Work. See Work, Rewarded. 

359. Persistence, Saving. Rev. 
Dr. J. H. Jowett tells the following: 



"One of the workers of our new 
Digbeth Institute, Birmingham, works 
all day to earn twenty-five shillings 
a week, and finds refreshment and 
recreation at night in getting into 
the gap between sinners and God. 
He had his eye on a man that was 
a perfect beast, — devil-ridden, lust- 
ridden, battered, bruised, altogeliier 
in bondage. Night after night he 
went to this man's slum house, and 
tried to keep him from the public 
house. The other night my work- 
ing-man's brother came to my vestry, 
and said, 'Mr. Jowett, the eightieth 
time did it.' Eighty nights, seventy- 
nine failures; the eightieth time he 
got the man to the Institute. By 
the mercy of man he led him to the 
mercy of God, and to-night while I 
speak he is at home in Christ." 

360. Perseverance, How? See 
Kept, by the Power of God. 

361. Personal Work. The mes- 
sage must have a messenger. A 
hotel was burning. It was a five- 
story wooden structure. It was sup- 
posed that the guests were fully res- 
cued. The lower stories were already 
wrapped in flames. The firemen 
stood back, when lo ! at a fifth-story 
window there appeared the white 
face of an invalid woman, who had 
been forgotten. Up went the long- 
est ladder. It was five feet too short. 
Quick as a flash a broad-shouldered 
fireman stepped beneath the window, 
straightened up, and said, "Rest the 
ladder on my shoulders." 

They did so. One held it while 
another went up, smashed the win- 
dow, and took the woman in his 
arms ; and in a moment she was 
safe. 

The ladder was long enough to do 
the business when it was pieced out 
by the length of a man. So is the 
gospel. But who? Why, any one 
that knows by experience Christ's 
saving power. 

362. Personal Work. See, Busi- 
ness, a Christian's. 

363. Personal Work. Carrying 
Them to Christ. Rev. M. T. Lamb 
says that out of nearly forty specific 
cases of healing recorded in the four 
Gospels, only six came for them- 
selves. About twenty cases were 
brought to Christ by others, and 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 89 



were healed, not primarily because 
of their own faith or their own ask- 
ing, but because of the faith and 
the asking of the persons who 
brought them. These twenty were 
hard cases — persons who could not 
or would not come for themselves. 
Is not Jesus Christ the same yes- 
terday, to-day and forever? And if 
he never turned one away who came 
on behalf of a friend or a neighbor 
who was sick, or crippled, or pal- 
sied, or possessed with demons, or 
dead, so he will not, cannot, turn 
you away if you with the same con- 
fidence and faith come to him in be- 
half of one whose soul is palsied, 
or possessed with demons, or spirit- 
ually dead. 

364. Personal Work. Case of 
Neglect. A noted evangelist was 
once holding a series of services in 
a church whose minister was a man 
of long experience and of great abil- 
ity and of great influence. One night 
as they sat on the platform together, 
the minister pointed out to the evan- 
gelist a man in the audience. "For 
twelve years," he said, **I have tried 
to win that man to Christ. I have 
preached to him so long that I some- 
times find myself doing it almost un- 
consciously." "From the pulpit?" 
asked the evangelist "From the pul- 
pit, yes." "How many times have 
you gone to him with the love of 
God in your heart and said: 1 want 
to see you become a child of God'? 
"I must confess," said the minister, 
"that I have never spoken to him 
personally and directly concerning his 
salvation." "Then," said the evan- 
gelist, "perhaps he is not impregna- 
ble after all." That night the evan- 
gelist, after the service, caught the 
man before he got to the door. And 
the next evening in the "after serv- 
ice," in which so many souls have 
found lasting peace and eternal life, 
the man was on his knees with the 
tears streaming down his cheeks. It 
was the personal touch that did it. 
— William Thomson ' McElroy. 

365. Personal Work, by a Ste- 
nographer. See Stenographer Do- 
ing Personal Work. 

366. Personal Work, of a Trav- 
eling Man. In my traveling I have 
frequent opportunity to do personal 
work with those with whom I come 



in touch. The good Lord has blessed 
the efforts in that direction. I am a 
Gideon. Only lately I asked a driver 
who took me from store to store if 
he was getting any satisfaction out 
of the life he was leading. He an- 
swered "No." Before we went to 
lunch I had the pleasure of seeing 
him a saved man. Our Lord is al- 
ways willing. — From a recent letter. 

367. Personal Work, Touch of 
Hand. See Hand, Touch of. 

368. Personal Work Band. 

Many churches have made a con- 
stituency roll, including the name of 
every person in the community for 
which the church is personally re- 
sponsible. They have used their 
group organization to gather this in- 
formation. 

They have organized their personal 
work band, including in it all the 
leaders of their groups, the teachers 
of Sunday-school classes, the officers 
of the young people's society, and 
as many of their men as could be 
enrolled. They have given these thor- 
ough training, and have assigned 
them the names of the* constituency 
roll, taking account of natural affili- 
ations, 

369. Pledged, for Life. When 

Lincoln reprieved William Scott, con- 
demned to be shot for sleeping at his 
post, he said to him : "I am going to 
trust you, and send you back to your 
regiment. My bill for this is a very 
large one. I have left my work, and 
have come up here from Washing- 
ton on your account. There is only 
one man in the world who can pay 
the bill, and his name is William 
Scott. If from this day William 
Scott does his duty so that if I were 
there when he comes to die, he could 
look me in the face as he does now, 
and say, T have kept my promise, and 
have done my duty as a soldier,' then 
the debt will be paid. Will you make 
that promise, and try to keep it?" 

The promise was made and kept. 
The soldier lived a life of courageous 
helpfulness, and died while rescuing 
wounded men. Every pardoned sin- 
ner is pledged to the Master for life. 
— Christian Endeavor World. 

370. Pocket Testament League, 
Origin of. See Witnessing, for 
Christ. 



90 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



371. Possessions, a Christian's. 
Are you a rich pauper? Poverty- 
may be caused not by lack of pos- 
sessions, but by failure to use what 
we possess. A dispatch from Seattle 
tells of the death of an old ragpicker 
who was found in the street by a 
policeman, weak from illness. It 
now appears, from the probating of 
his will, that instead of being a pen- 
niless old man he possessed $15,000 
in cash and property valued at $30,- 
000. A sister is named in his will as 
the principal beneficiary. He lived 
and died as a. pauperized ragpicker, 
while all the time possessing enough 
to have kept him comfortable and 
well There are Christians who are 
doing the same thing. Their spiritual 
life is poverty-stricken, weak, and de- 
feated, and they are likely to continue 
to live and finally to die as practical 
paupers in the Christian life. Yet 
all the while they possess, not $45,- 
000, but infinitely more in the ''un- 
searchable riches" of Christ. ''AH 
things" are theirs: God has given 
them his entire property in the "un- 
speakable gift" of his Son, and has 
blessed them with every spiritual 
blessing in the heavenlies. — Sunday- 
School Times. 

372. Power, Given. A Korean 
was once asked, "Can you do it?" 
with reference to some church work. 
"We ask questions such as 'Can you 
do it?' about men's work, but not 
about God's work," was the quiet 
reply of the man. 

373. Power, Men Transmit Im- 
perfectly. An inventor was talking 
about electric conduits. "Do you 
know that great power house of the 
traction company on the avenue? 
Well, the manager will tell you that 
forty per cent of the electricity gen- 
erated there is lost because of im- 
perfect conduits. Think of that for 
prodigious waste! Almost half of 
the product of that great plant counts 
for nothing." 

Well might the inventor wax em- 
phatic over this excessive waste of 
energy. But while he was talking 
our mind turned to a similar waste 
of greater power, and for the same 
reason. God designs to transmit his 
power through men. Only as they 
yield themselves to him in con- 
version, confession, and full sur- 
render can they become efficient me- 



diums for transmitting his power to 
others. 

374. Power Within Needed. I 

have seen a little tugboat pull the 
great sea-going vessels about the 
harbor of New York, but when these 
vessels were out on the sea they 
needed something more than the pull 
of the tugboat; they must have the 
throb of power within themselves. 
And so we may be drawn about by 
outside influences — the preaching of 
a sermon, the singing of a hymn; 
but what is needed for every child 
of God, if he would brave the storm 
and safely reach the harbor, is that 
he himself have God's power within 
him. 

375. Prayer^ and Soul Winning, 

Successful soul-winning has two 
component parts — going to God for 
sinners and going to sinners for God. 
It is thus that we are workers to- 
gether with God. Praj^erless methods 
account for most of the failures in 
Christian work. — ^Rev. J, W. Kemp, 
D.D. 

376. Prayer, Habit of. Two 

men went to the Y. M. C. A. direc- 
tor in one of the camps and said 
that they were in the habit of kneel- 
ing down and saying their prayers 
at home. What ought they to» do 
here? "Try it out," was the advice. 
They did; the second night two 
others in the barracks joined them; 
the third night a few more ; gradu- 
ally the number increased until con- 
siderably more than half the men 
resumed the habit of childhood and 
knelt by their cots in prayer before 
turning in. A company captain in 
one of the cantonments the first eve- 
ning his men stood at attention for 
retreat said : "Men, this is a serious 
business we are engaged in ; it is fit- 
ting that we should pray about it." 
There and then this Plattsburgh re- 
serve officer made a simple and ear- 
nest prayer for the divine blessing 
upon their lives and their work. The 
impression upon the men was de- 
scribed as tremendous. 

377. Prayer, in Christian Work. 

A marble cutter, with chisel and 
hammer, was changing a stone into 
a statue. A preacher looking on said : 
"I wish I could deal such clanging 
blows on stony hearts." The work- 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 9i 



man made answer, "Maybe you could, 
if you worked like me, upon your 
knees." 

378. Prayer, Its Importance. 

The old adage used to run, "To la- 
bor is to pray." I prefer to turn 
it around and have it read, "To pray 
is to labor." We can all pray peo- 
ple into the Kingdom when every 
other means or agency has utterly 
failed. If I could have fifty people 
in my church who would promise to 
work unremittingly for souls, and 
five who would covenant to pray 
without ceasing for souls, I would 
unhesitatingly choose the latter. — 
Rev. John Balcom Shaw, D.D. 

379. Prayer, Unrecognized An- 
swers to. Sometimes the Lord's 
answer has reaxly come, but we have 
not prayed for eyes to see it. It has 
not come quite in the dress we ex- 
pected, and therefore we did not know 
it. A friend was appointed to meet 
me at a railway station. He looked 
for a man in clerical attire, and we 
wandered about, little knowing that 
we were brushing shoulders with 
each other all the time. He thought 
I had not arrived, but I was there in 
another dress. And, therefore, it is 
well to look at our ordinary circum- 
stances when they do not come to us 
in familiar and expected guise. — Dr. 

J. H. JOWETT. 

380. Prayers, Family. A short 
time ago I was attending a service 
in one of our New York City Res- 
cue Missions and was greatly im- 
pressed with the open and honest 
testimonies of the men who bore 
witness to the saving grace of Christ. 
One man, a Scotchman, particularly 
arrested my attention. It might be 
said he had gone astray from his 
birth. Coming to the United States 
when quite young, he soon found the 
easy path which led to the gates of 
death. There is no sin in which he 
did not speedily become expert, and 
he rapidly graduated in the school 
of iniquity. His wild life became 
too much for his physical frame and 
he was abandoned as one dead. 
Given up by physicians and friends, 
and reduced to the last extremity, 
the Lord met and saved him. If 
ever a regenerated soul moved in this 
earth he is one, and he attributes the 
change to what? During all those 



reckless years of evil, the memory of 
the family prayers in his Highland 
home never forsook him, and at last 
those prayers prevailed. A boy sur- 
rounded by prayer may wander away, 
but not forever. — Rev. Joseph W. 
Kemp. 

381. Prayers, Seemingly Unan- 
swered, but Answered. In his 

"confessions," St. Augustine pictures 
his mother, Monica, praying all one 
night, in a seaside chapel on the 
North African coast, that God would 
not let her son sail for Italy. She 
wanted Augustine to be a Christian. 
She could not endure losing him from 
her influence. If under her care he 
still was far from being Christ's, 
what would he be in Italy, home of 
licentiousness and splendor, of mani- 
fold and alluring temptations? And 
even while she prayed there passion- 
ately for her son's retention at home, 
he sailed, by the grace of God, for 
Italy, where, persuaded by Ambrose, 
he became a Christian in the very 
place from which his mother's prayers 
would have kept him. Some of our 
boys who went "over there" in the 
great war whose mothers prayed that 
they might not go were saved over 
there. — H. 

382. Preaching, by a Converted 
Prize Fighter. Jack Cardiff, Billy 
Sunday's big body-guard and ath- 
letic trainer, spoke to hundreds of 
men at noon meetings in department 
stores and manufacturing plants in 
the Philadelphia campaign and told 
them the wonderful story of how 
he gave up prize-fighting and vaude- 
ville work to join Billy Sunday's 
party. He was converted in Canton, 
Ohio. He knows all about the the- 
ater and the ring, and his rough, 
straightforward message reaches the 
hearts of men. At one of the big 
department stores he had closed his 
appeal to the men this way: "My 
throat is getting tired, boys (I've got 
many a crack on it in my day), so 
we'll pray." It was a short, crude, 
earnest prayer. "Bless every one 
here, O God, and bless Mr. Sunday 
and me and my throat," he con- 
cluded. Then he stood erect. "Lis- 
ten to me, boys," he called, "let me 
tell you something. Help me and 
Sunday by standing up for Christ. 
Raise your hand if you will." 

Almost every hand went up. 



92 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



"Amen," said Cardiff fervently. 
They crowded about him, many with 
tears in their eyes, and shook his 
hand. "You knocked out a good 
many to-day, Mr. Cardiff," one man 
said as he passed. 

383. Procrastination. So invet- 
erate has the habit of procrastina- 
tion become among men that the 
phrase "by and by," which, in the 
time of the early English translators 
of the Bible, meant "immediately," 
now means the very opposite. — 
Trench. 

384. Procrastination. Many ages 
ago a Greek nobleman made a feast 
for his friends. In the midst of his 
mirth a messenger entered in great 
haste with a letter. It was from a 
distance, to tell him that a plot had 
been formed by his enemies to kill 
him that night. "My lord," said the 
messenger, "my master desired me 
to say that you must read the letter 
without delay, for it is about serious 
things." "Serious things to-morrow," 
said the nobleman, as he threw the 
letter aside, and took up his cup of 
wine. The delay was fatal. Before 
the feast was at an end, his enemies 
rushed into the hall and slew him, 

385. Procrastination, Defeat by. 

One of the most remarkable contri- 
butions of the tropics to the temper- 
ate zone is the banana. A few years 
ago it was a rare fruit; now it is as 
common as apples if not as cheap. 
But there is something else that 
thrives too well in the tropics that 
we must be careful not to import. 
It takes but a change of one letter 
to make this word — manana. 

When some one asked the late 
Emperor of Brazil how he explained 
the backwardness of his country, he 
said it was due to "manana." What 
does it mean? "To-morrow." Find 
a person or a people ever saying 
"manana ; there is no hurry ; let it 
wait ; there is plenty of time," and 
you have found degeneracy and de- 
cay and death. There is no such 
day as to-morrow. It is a will-o'- 
the-wisp, an ignis fatuus, a quick- 
sand, a mirage, a fool's paradise. 
To-morrow does not exist. If it 
comes, it will be a to-day. Learn 
then to pray and plan, to speak and 
do to-day. No good thing was ever 
accompHshed to-morrow. This is 



why every day is a dooms-day, for 
to-day holds life and death, character 
and destiny in its living hands. Yes- 
terday is buried, to-morrow is un- 
born, therefore, "behold, now is the 
accepted time ; behold, now is the 
day of salvation." 

386. Procrastination, Folly of. 

See Delay, Danger of. 

387. Procrastination, It Weakens 
the Will. I was called to a home 
where I found the only son danger- 
ously ill. By direction of the family 
physician, I informed him of his dan- 
ger and endeavored to present to him 
the necessity of accepting Christ. 
But he put me off, saying, "There's 
plenty of time, there's plenty of 
time." Early the next morning I was 
summoned to his home by the grief- 
stricken father, saying his boy was 
dying. We hastened to the bedside 
of the dying boy. Leaning over him, 
I called him by name, but there was 
no response. I called the word 
"Father" into his ear, then the word 
"Mother" and then the word "Sis- 
ter," and then the name of Christ. 
But there was no response. Turning 
to his broken-hearted father, I said, 
"You call." And, oh, how earnestly 
and persistently he called, "My son; 
oh, my son." There was no response. 
Then I turned to his mother, and out 
of her broken heart she called, "My 
boy." Still no response. Here was 
father love and mother love — to the 
very last calling — but without re- 
sponse. The willingness to call was 
just as strong as ever, but the power 
to respond had failed. The willing- 
ness of God to call can never be 
questioned, but our power to hear 
and heed that call is lessened every 
time we fail to obey it. — 'Rev. John 
McDowell. 

388. Promises, Belief in Saves. 

As a friend from a ship would throw 
ropes to a drowning man, so Christ 
stands throwing promises within your 
reach. Lay hold of any one, and 
hold on. Not one strand, or jot, or 
tittle will fail. Look for no signs, 
nor wonders, nor strange sights, nor 
sounds, nor marvelous feelings. 
Change of feeling, or emotion, or joy, 
or happiness, is not of itself religion, 
but incidental to religion, caused by 
this new life begun at the cross. 
Leave everything and follow him. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 93 



He is now waiting and calling to 
you; and angels are listening to hear 
you say that decisive word, on which 
hangs your eternal destiny — "I will; 
by the grace of God assisting me, I 
will." Give up every known sin, and 
do every known duty you come to. 

389. Promises, of God. When 
William, Prince of Orange, handed a 
chosen man a written pledge for a 
high position in his kingdom if the 
man would support him the man de- 
clined it, saying,. "Your Majesty's 
word is sufficient. I would not serve 
a king if I could not trust his word." 
The word of our King is worthy our 
fullest confidence, and we can rely 
upon its complete fulfillment. Upon 
the day that God fails to keep his 
word the universe will fall to pieces. 
— Sunday-School Chronicle. 

390. Promptness, in Accepting 
Gospel Offer. See Offer, Accept 
the First. 

391. Redeemer, Serving Our. 

Years ago, in a Southern State, a 
slave auction was held. Upon the 
block stood a beautiful young woman, 
fair of countenance, with yellow hair 
and blue eyes, and only upon the 
finger-nails and at the roots of the 
hair was there a slight tinge of color 
to show that generations back an 
African had been among her ances- 
tors. She stood there to be sold as 
a slave, and bids came from all over 
the crowd. Every bid made by those 
near the auction block was answered 
and raised by some one further back, 
and at last, to the distant bidder 
the girl was sold. The throng opened 
to give the man access to his pur- 
chase. As the girl looked at her new 
master she felt that he was no ordi- 
nary person. Benign was the face 
and gentle the eye of the man who 
drew near to her. As he came to 
the block, he stood by the girl a mo- 
ment, then put his hand in his coat 
pocket, drew out a paper, and hand- 
ing it to her said: "My girl, you 
are free; there are your manumis- 
sion papers." He turned to leave 
her, but on the instant she leaped 
from the block, dropped at his feet, 
clasped his knees with her arms, and 
with tears streaming down her face, 
said, "Oh, sir, do not leave me; I 
do not know who you are, but take 
me with you. You have redeemed 



me, and I will serve you faithfully 
all my Hfe." 

Oh, we who have been redeemed, 
not with perishable things such as 
silver and gold, but with the precious 
blood of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb 
without spot and without blemish, is 
not ours the duty to bring to him 
other souls to be cleansed by his 
blood and saved with his salvation? 
May we everywhere rouse to duty, 
strive for souls, and make the year 
of work which opens before us a year 
of years, marked by the addition to 
the Church of a multitude of souls 
saved by Christ to the Hfe everlast- 
ing. 

392. Recruiting for Christ. In 

Hamilton, Canada, certain officers 
commanding various units adopted 
the following method in an effort to 
bring their battalions up to the re- 
quired strength for overseas service. 
They turned their entire battalions 
loose for three days, having in- 
structed the men to hunt up their 
relatives, their chums, and their ac- 
quaintances, in an effort to get them 
to enlist. The results were splendid, 
and the battalions were quickly 
brought up to full strength. Do we 
realize that as soon as we enlist in 
the army of King Jesus, he immedi- 
ately commissions us as recruiting 
officers to bring in our relatives, 
friends, and acquaintances to his king- 
dom and service? And that he ex- 
pects us to engage in this work not 
simply for three days, but for life? 
— Rev. T. DeCourcy Rayner. 

393. Regeneration. It is related 
that Augustine, shortly after his con- 
version met the woman who had been 
his evil genius, and would have 
passed her by. She stopped him, 
"Augustine, it is I." To which he 
replied, "But it is not I." He was 
a new man in Christ. 

394. Regeneration, Experienced. 

An old Scotchman, who was con- 
verted, was asked why he was not 
more humble, and why he did not say 
he hoped he was saved or trusted 
that he was saved. He turned around 
— I will never forget his answer. 
"Why," he said, "man alive, I was 
there when it was done." 

395. Rejection of Christ. See 

Christ, Turning from. 



94 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



396. Religion, the Change it 
Makes. I remember some years 
ago conducting a mission, and one 
of the office-bearers of the church 
where I was said to me: "Mr. Mor- 
gan, I want you to come and see 
some people. A girl was married 
out of our Sunday-school a few 
years ago to a man who is a slave 
to drink and impurity and gam- 
bling. I would like you to come 
along and see her." 

I went. It was in 1885, on a cold 
February day. Oh, I cannot picture 
the home to you! It was one of 
those awful houses in the midlands 
of England, reached by passing 
through an entry between other 
houses into a back court. When I 
got to the entry with my friend some 
children who were hovering and 
shivering there, hearing our steps 
approaching, rushed away. We fol- 
lowed them and went into the house. 
I see that room now. There was a 
broken table standing there, a chair 
with the back broken off standing by 
it, no fire in the grate; upon the 
mantel-shelf a cup and saucer 
broken ; and not another article of 
furniture that my eye rested on in 
the room. And there stood a woman 
in unwomanly rags, with the mark 
of a brutal fist upon her face and 
three ill-clad bairns clinging to her 
gown. She said : "Excuse the chil- 
dren running from you, but they 
thought it was father."^ 

Oh, the tragedy of it! 

When I got on to the rostrum 
that night to preach my friend came 
to me and said: "He is here." I 
said: "Who is here?" "That 
woman's husband; he is sitting right 
down in front of you." 

Now, I don't often preach at one 
man, but I did that night. I put 
aside what I was going to talk about 
and read the story of the prodigal, 
and I asked God to help me talk 
about it, and for about a solid hour 
I preached at that man. Do you 
think I hammered at him and 
scolded him? Not I. I told him 
God loved him, there and then; and 
when we got to our after meeting I 
asked, "What man is coming home 
to-night?" And he was the very 
first to rise. He came forward, and 
as I went down from^ the rostrum 
and gave that meeting into some one 
else's hands, and got my arm around 
him and prayed and wept with him, 



he entered into the Kingdom of 
God. 

My friend said to me one day 
about twelve months later, "I want 
you to go and see some people." I 
said "Who?" He said, "Do you re- 
member going to see a woman last 
year whose husband was converted?" 
I went. We hadn't gone far — it was 
February of the next year — before 
I said to him, "Friend, where are you 
taking me?" "Oh, we are going to 
see those people." "But," I said, 
"we are not going the same way." 
"No," he said, "they have moved.'* 
Moved! Why did they move? 
Why, the man was converted and he 
soon changed his dwelling-place. 
The man was re-made, and he re- 
made his environment; and he had 
gone, not into a palace, but into a 
cottage in the main street. 

If I could paint pictures I would 
paint those two. I can see that home 
now. It was on a Sunday, after the 
afternoon service, and he sat by the 
fire with his three bairns, who had 
run away from him a year ago. One 
was on his knee, another on his 
shoulder and another stood by him; 
and I never heard a sweeter solo in 
my life than the solo the kettle sang 
on the hob that day. The woman 
that last year was dressed in un- 
womanly rags was clothed and the 
sunlight of love was on her face. — 
Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, D.D. 

397. Repentance, a Child's. 

Perhaps the quaintest letter in the 
whole White House collection is one 
which came from a child to Presi- 
dent Cleveland, written in Septem- 
ber, 1895.^ This is what it says : "To 
His Majesty President Cleveland. 
Dear President : I am in a dreadful 
state of mind, and I thought I would 
write and tell you all. About two 
years ago — as near as I can remem- 
ber it is two years — I used two 
postage stamps that had been used 
before on letters, perhaps more than 
two stamps, but I can only remem- 
ber of doing it twice. I did ncH: 
realize what I had done until lately. 
My mind is constantly turned on that 
subject, and I think of it night and 
day. Now, dear President, will you i 
please forgive me, and I will prom- 
ise you I will never do it again. 
Enclosed find cost of three stamps, 
and please forgive me, for I was 
then but thirteen years old, for I 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 95 



am heartily sorry for what I have 
done. From one of your subjects." 

398. Repentance, Needed. Every 
one seems to agree that the world is 
in a bad way, and nearly every one 
seems to think the war was to blame 
for it. But is it? 

"What is the matter with us?" said 
one thoughtful man to his neighbor. 
The matter is that the Spirit of God 
cannot reach a soul or a nation that 
does not repent. 

First of all comes repentance. 
When John the Baptist preached in 
the wilderness, he preached on— re- 
pent ! 

When Jesus came out of the wil- 
derness in the power of the Spirit, 
his first sermon was on — repent! 

It is a word which has dropped 
out of the vocabulary of the aver- 
age preacher. He discourses on serv- 
ice and social needs and international 
good-will to an audience that needs 
first of all to repent. 

When once this nation gets to the 
place where it humbly acknowledges 
its sins and seeks the forgiveness of 
God for its sin the Spirit will come 
with power. 

The one thing which hinders spir- 
itual power in this country and the 
world is lack of repentance for sin. 

There will never be a revival of 
righteousness in this nation until it 
confesses its transgression and re- 
pents of its evil ways. — Christian 
Herald, 

399. Rescue, the Work of. 

After being entombed by a fall of 
coal in a mine of the Reading Com- 
pany, near Shamokin, Pa., for a 
period of ninety-six hours, without 
food or water, Joseph Renock, a 
miner, was taken out alive. A force 
of 120 men had been working for 
four days at the risk of their lives 
in an effort to rescue the impris- 
oned man. In their path they found 
a large steel car which they had to 
chisel away. Members of his fam- 
ily were at the mine when _ Renock 
was rescued, and the rejoicing was 
beyond description. The rescued man 
was rushed to the hospital, and was 
returned to his home and work again. 
What a superb type of manhood do 
we find among these hardy miners! 
They take their lives in their hands 
every day away from God's sunlight, 
to get fuel for the public comfort 



and convenience, and they will not 
hesitate an instant in rescuing a fel- 
low-workman in danger or distress. 
Oh, if men could be so prompt and 
persistent in saving the imprisoned 
souls of men ! Some are ; may the 
number increase, imitating him of 
whom it was said : "The Son of man 
is come to seek and to save that 
which was lost." 

400. Rescue-work. "What else 
could I do?" So said a frail young 
girl of seventeen. 

The home of this young heroine, 
Miss Esther Fuller, is in Corpus 
Christi, Tex. The flood came in the 
fall of 1919, and she and her brother, 
a lad of eleven, found themselves 
in the water. The boy became un- 
conscious, and for five hours before 
being rescued the girl swam about 
in the surging waters, supporting 
her little brother. Happily her fa- 
vorite sport had been swimming, ac- 
cording to the account in the news- 
papers. 

"I couldn't leave him, could I?" 
was the expression of the girl when 
her heroic conduct was being com- 
mended. 

What a motto for those who are 
seeking to win others for their Mas- 
ter's service! 

Those who endeavor to "rescue the 
perishing" will find that the Lord 
will provide strength for their task. 
Pluckily and hopefully they may con- 
tinue their labor of love. Unfalter- 
ing faith in the saving Christ leads 
the Christian worker to exclaim, "I 
couldn't leave him, could I?" Be- 
cause of such holy daring many have 
been reclaimed from the ways of sin. 
—Rev. W. J. Hart, D.D. 

401. Rest, Christ Gives. Dr. F. 
E. Clark told of watching two birds 
following their vessel, on the At- 
lantic, for days. They grew wearier 
and wearier; made feints at alight- 
ing, but were afraid to. ^ At last, 
through sheer exhaustion, one 
dropped into the waves, and per- 
ished. The other, at the last mo- 
ment, alighted on the steamer's deck, 
and was saved. "Come unto me and 
I will give you rest." 

402. Restitution and Repentance. 

See Repentance, a Child's. 

403. Results of Decision. To 

decide for Christ is to decide for 



96 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



good-fortune, for peace, for happi- 
ness, for friends, for prosperity, for 
a blessed eternity. Who can hesitate 
before that decision? 

404. Resisting Christ. "Why do 
you want to join the church?" 
asked the pastor of a New England 
boy. "Because I want to show that 
I am a saved sinner." "Do you feel 
that you are saved?" "Yes, sir." 
"Who saved you?" "It is the work 
of Jesus Christ and of myself." "Of 
yourself? What was your share in 
the work of your salvation?" "I 
resisted, and Jesus Christ did the 
rest." 

405. Revival, After the. After 
the revival comes that important 
work of training for the service. 
There must be a beginning. Young 
converts learn to do things by doing 
them. Valuable talents have been 
lost to the church because not called 
into exercise in early Christian life. 
There is something for every child 
of God to do. And the pastor who 
excuses his members, in order to 
make it easy for them is robbing and 
impoverishing them, and robbing 
himself of their help and dishonor- 
ing God. 

The failure to train for service 
those whom God has accepted as his 
servants is, perhaps, the greatest de- 
fect in our church life to-day. A 
genuine revival, an ingathering of 
souls, is only the beginning of what 
should follow. Wise nurture and 
faithful training must complete the 
work that God has graciously be- 
gun. — Rev. S. E. Wishard, D.D. 

406. Revival, Conditions of. 
Every local church can have a re- 
vival if it plans for it, organizes its 
forces, believes in a saving Christ, 
presents a vital gospel and goes out 
after the lost and brings them in. — 
Telescope. 

407. Revival, Faith Will Bring. 

In the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 
four hundred Church officers assem- 
bled for an evening luncheon and 
after conference concerning the needs 
of the city, it was stated by a dis- 
tinguished minister present that this 
body of men could solve every prob- 
lem affecting the City of Winnipeg 
if they but lived up to their God- 
given privileges. The meeting of 



the spiritual needs of any community 
is within the power of the Chris- 
tians in that community. 

When Joash came to visit Elisha, 
the prophet said, "Take the arrows, 
. . . smite upon the ground. And 
he smote thrice and stayed. And the 
man of God was wroth with him, 
and said. Thou shouldest have smit- 
ten five or six times ; then hadst thou 
smitten Syria until thou hadst con- 
sumed it; whereas now thou shalt 
smite Syria but thrice." 

The irresolute character of Joash 
lacked the quality of character that 
seeks the largest possible results. 

A genuine quickening of the 
Christ life in the church equips God's 
people for larger possibilities, and is 
God's command to "Go up and pos- 
sess the land." — H. 

408. Revival, Fire. There can 
be no revival without prayer any, 
more than there can be steam with- * 
out fire. The prayerless church is a 
powerless church. — Telescope. 

409. Revival, Good. A revival 
of business is earnestly welcomed by 
every man. It would seem that a 
revival of anything that is good is in 
itself good, and ought to be wel- 
comed at any time. And yet there are 
men who seem to have a horror of a 
religious revival. 

If religion is good, then a revival 
of religion is good. If life is good, 
then more abundant life is better. 
If practical recognition of God in 
daily life and conduct is good, then 
decided and special and impressive 
recognition of him and of our need of 
him and desire toward him is good. 
If gratitude and trust and love are 
good, it follows that the expression 
of these is good. David declared that 
when he kept silence his bones 
wasted away. The springs of his be- 
ing were drying up until they found 
expression. He was conscious of 
his sin, and that there was forgive- 
ness with God. It was not informa- 
tion that he needed, but action. 
When he confessed his sin and 
sought forgiveness, he experienced 
revival. 

410. Revival, How Secured. A 

revival is the result of one or more 
persons letting the Lord Jesus Christ 
be not only their Saviour but their 
supreme Lord and Master; faithfully 



^ 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 97 

413. Revival, Means "Life 
Again." Revival means "life again." 
Oh, how God longs for it every- 
where! He has paid the price for 
it ; let us take it from his outstreched 
hands. Let us claim it by the prom- 
ise made us through the prayer of 
the great apostle: 



studying the Word of God to know 
his will; faithfully praying in his 
name in order that his will may be 
done in them and through them; 
faithfully witnessing to his power in 
order that he may enter into lives 
round about them. When the mind 
of Christ becomes the mind of one 
■or more persons in a church, and 
his burdens become their burdens, 
his suffering their suffering, his in- 
tercession their intercession, his wit- 
nessing their witnessing, — a revival 
is likely to follow. — The Sunday 
School Times. 

411. Revival, Husbanding the 
Fruits of. One element in hus- 
banding the fruits of a revival is 
putting the converts in positions of 
trust and responsibility. The first 
thought of every truly converted per- 
son is to do something for Christ 
and his cause ; but how shall they 
do it, and where shall they begin? 
This is the time for the church to 
step up to the converts. Point them 
to a place of work, and if there are 
no vacancies, let those of experi- 
ence in the church make vacancies by 
going out themselves into larger 
work. With our varied departments 
in all our churches at present, every 
convert can be given a place of trust 
or responsibility. 

Again, notice the benefits of cot- 
tage prayer services in establishing 
new converts in the faith of Christ, 
as well as in the church. It has 
been my custom to follow this for 
some months after each revival, 
making it a rule to hold our meet- 
ings in the homes of the new con- 
verts. I find that a service of this 
kind in the home of a new convert, 
somehow, seals the affections of that 
home with the church and its mem- 
bership. — Rev. p. M. Camp. 

412. Revival, Means Church on 
Fire. Orthodoxy does not insure 
a revival. Many a church which has 
carefully, proudly cherished its or- 
thodoxy for many a year is as far 
from a revival as the most hetero- 
dox church in the land. There must 
be something more than an intel- 
lectual adherence to scripturally cor- 
rect theology. Remember Sunday's 
terse word: "A church that is only 
an evangelical church is a church on 
ice ; a church that is evangelistic is a 
church on fire." 



"All that we ask. 
All that we ask or think. 
Above all that we ask or think. 
Abundantly above all that we ask 
or think. 
Exceeding abundantly above all that 
we ask or think. 
According to the Power that work- 
eth in us." 

— Sunday School Times. 

414. Revival, Needed. The min- 
ister of a certain church, where the 
congregation was large, came home 
one day in a state of depression. 
"What is the matter?" asked his 
wife anxiously. He replied, 'T felt 
this morning that I ought to resign 
and give up the cause of Christ." 
Shocked, and not understanding, the 
minister's wife said, "Why, what has 
made you feel Hke this?" The good 
man sighed as he answered, "My 
congregation seem so indifferent. 
They hear my counsel, yet they go 
on living for themselves alone, and 
Christ appears meaningless to them." 
"So you would like every one to be 
good, and everything just right," said 
his wife. "Yes." "Then," said she, 
"if that were so you could resign, 
because you wouldn't be needed. 
While there are people who forsake 
God, and appear indifferent to his 
teaching, you should work on. Your 
preaching and teaching are still 
badly wanted, and never forget that 
your cause is the Lord's." — Christian 
Herald. 

415. Revival, Our Part In. Our 

prayers for God's help are often an- 
swered with exhortations to help 
ourselves. The prophet's cry, 
"Awake, awake, put on thy strength, 
O arm of the Lord," echoes back 
"Awake, awake, put on thy strength, 
O Zion." The Church's plea for re- 
vival brings the answer : "Shake thy- 
self from the dust." "Loose thyself 
from the bands of thy neck." 
"Wherefore criest thou unto me? 
Speak unto the Children of Israel 
that they go forward." 



98 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



416. Revival, That Spreads. 

After the Pentecost, Peter and others 
kept on preaching and the Lord 
added to the church daily, and the 
number of men that beheved was 
about five thousand. And we find 
the influence of these revivals spread- 
ing over the lands and down the 
centuries until the banner of the 
cross waved over the city of Con- 
stantine. Pastor Harms of Hermans- 
burg, Germany, was not distin- 
guished for his eloquence, but his 
one aim was the conversion of souls. 
His parish was ten miles square. 
He had inquiry-meetings and a 
prayer-meeting every evening. The 
revival interest continued for sev- 
enteen years. There was a family 
altar in every dwelling and he had 
a church of ten thousand members. 

417. Revivals, by Yielding Our 
Wills. We do not believe in get- 
ting up a revival. All genuine re- 
vivals must come down. It is not 
man-made. A revival of religion is 
a miracle of divine grace. It cannot 
be secured by any kind of machin- 
ery, and yet its coming to a church 
is not so mysterious and so apart 
from human agency and the use of 
means as some good people think. 
God is always ready to pour out his 
Spirit; indeed, the Spirit is poured 
out. The Spirit is around us, hke 
the light, and will enter our hearts as 
soon as we open them. The Spirit 
is pressing against the stubborn wills 
of impenitent men and women, like 
water against the head-gate of a 
mill. He will come in, and start all 
the wheels of moral action, as soon 
as the gate is ooen. 

418. Revivals, How They Orig- 
inate, What They Accomplish. At 

this time, when the hearts of multi- 
tudes are praying for a great spirit- 
ual revival, it may be helpful to re- 
view the revivals of the past to note 
how they originated and what they 
accomplished. The whole history of 
the Christian Church is one of suc- 
cessful revivals. Without these peri- 
odical awakenings, it would never 
have made the spiritual progress it 
did. 

In these sordid days, when multi- 
tudes are bent on the acquisition of 
wealth, the indulgence of extrava- 
gance, and the pursuit of pleasure, 
there are many who belittle revivals. 



They assert that they are things of 
the past — out of date and unsuited 
to the needs of the modern age. 
Even in some of the churches we 
hear such mistaken teachings. There 
are pastors who regard the revival 
as an intrusion upon the calm of their 
church hfe, with its formalities and 
proprieties. They will join in a 
"drive" for any one of a multitude 
of good causes, but never in a drive 
for souls. 

As we look back on history, we see 
how even the Exodus itself was in 
a large sense a revival. Israel, blind 
and besotted in its bondage, hugged 
its flesh-pots and had no vision of 
the future. Even after it had 
started across the wilderness, its 
faith needed constant renewing. 

Pentecost, which has been called 
the commencement of the new era of 
organized Christianity, was essen- 
tially a revival. The whole ministry 
of Jesus was preparatory work for 
the upbuilding of his Church on 
earth, and the revival came as he 
had promised, with the Pentecostal 
enduement of power. 

The time has come when the 
Church must go to God for itself, 
before it can go to God for a lost 
world. Prayerless churches are pow- 
erless churches — from God's point of 
view — no matter how full of "good 
works." 

419. Revivals, Must They Be 
Chiefly Emotional? No. The tru- 
est, most serviceable revival is not 
chiefly emotional. The work of 
Billy Sunday, for example, is not 
chiefly emotional. It is chiefly an 
appeal to the will. An experienced 
worker who had been with him 
through the Scranton campaign said 
to some Philadelphia men before the 
campaign here started: "If a man 
hasn't any brains, tell him to keep 
away from the Sunday meetings. A 
man who goes to hear Billy Sunday 
must be prepared to think." Reli- 
gion is not a matter of the feelings, 
it is a matter of the will. The con- 
spicuous characteristic of Billy Sun- 
day's message is their clean-cut, in- 
escapable, relentless reasoning, — re- 
lentless, that is, against the lies that 
the Devil tries to persuade men to 
accept instead of God's truth. Sun- 
day and other strong evangelists do 
not hesitate to appeal to the emo- 
tions as occasion may offer from 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 99 



/ 



time to time; but they know that 
the emotional appeal is not the final 
appeal. In a tremendous sermon on 
Matthew's conversion, from the text, 
"And he arose and followed him," 
Sunday drove home the truth that "a 
quiet conversion may be a thorough 
conversion." 

420. Revivals, Opposed. The 

following persons with all the mem- 
bers of th'^ir families don't like gen- 
uine revivals : Mr. Formality, Mr. 
Hypocrisy, Mr. Half Hope, Mr. 
Guess So, Mr. Lost His Experience, 
Mr. Worldly PoHcy, Mr. Compro- 
mise, Mr. Secret Sin, Mr. Luke- 
warm and Mr. At Ease in Zion. We 
do not like to indulge in personali- 
ties, but lest unexperienced revival 
workers should be alarmed at the op- 
position which they will meet from 
these persons we feel that this state- 
ment should be made. 

421. Revivals, Reactions from. 

Are reactions from a revival inevita- 
ble, probable, or necessary? Reaction 
is probable ; it is not inevitable or nec- 
essary. Reaction means "reverse or 
return action"; and wherever there 
is a real revival the Devil and his 
helpers throw themselves furiously 
into a campaign to reverse its bless- 
ings. They're pretty likely to find 
some human beings who will yield to 
their onslaughts. But a reaction 
from a revival is no more inevitable 
or necessary than that sickness must 
overtake a person who is in the best 
of health, merely because he is 
healthy. Remember; the revival Hfe 
is the normal life ; reaction from it 
is a relapse into the abnormal. 

422. Revivals, They Revive. Are 

revivals in the long run helpful or 
harmful? 

A true revival revives; and to re- 
vive, according to the Standard Dic- 
tionary, is "to bring to life again 
after real or apparent death ; to bring 
from a state of languor, depression, 
or discouragement ^ to a state of 
health or cheer ; give new life to ; 
refresh." Is this, in the long run, 
helpful or harmful? 

Are revivals necessarily rather for 
the unthinking, superficial "masses" 
than for the more thoughtful 
"classes"? 

Only if the masses need Christ 
more than the classes, — and they do 



not. Culture can deaden just as ef- 
fectively as illiteracy. Wealth can 
deaden just as effectively as poverty. 
The true revival cuts through the 
deadening effect of anything and 
everything that has come between 
the individual and Christ, and lets 
Christ into the heart and mind in 
resurrection power. A revival is a 
resurrection. Whoever is really or 
apparently dead, no ^ matter what 
the cause, needs reviving. — Sunday 
School Times. 

423. Revivals, Thoroughness in. 

Preachers should by all means be 
thorough in preaching. By this we 
do not mean that they should be 
severe or rough, but that they should 
make the word plain and make ex- 
ceedingly clear the terms of salva- 
tion so that none would imagine 
that they could obtain the salvation 
of the Lord unless they really re- 
pented of all sin and surrendered 
themselves fully to God and to his 
will. Those at the altar are seldom 
saved above the standard proclaimed 
from the pulpit. Hence the impera- 
tive need of preaching if genuine 
work is the object to be obtained. 

424. Revivals, Times of Oppor- 
tunity to Secure. See Times for 
Revival. 

425. Righteousness, God's Gift. 

A Scotch minister was once preach- 
ing at Inverness, and was about to 
enter the pulpit, when word was 
brought to him that an aged High- 
lander, now eighty years of age, who 
had been converted at sixty, lay dy- 
ing. Though there were only a few 
minutes to spare, he went over to 
see this man. Going to the house, 
he said to him, "I have just four 
minutes. Do you think you could 
tell me in that time how you were 
converted?" "Oh, yes," he replied, 
"I could tell you in two. When I 
was sixty years of age, the Lord 
Jesus came along and said to me, 
'Sandy, I'll exchange you.' " "Ex- 
change, Sandy, and what did you 
give him?" asked the minister. And 
Sandy replied, "I gave him all my 
years of sin and my sinful heart, and 
he gave me in return his righteous- 
ness." 

426. Sacrifice, Willing. Captain 
the Rev. D. J. Hiley, a Baptist min- 



100 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



ister on active service behind the 
British lines in France, said in a let- 
ter to his church: As the hospital 
train comes in, in the bright face 
of that lad from London no one 
would have gathered what was the 
matter with him. I look into his 
bright face, and say, "Well, you have 
been hurt." "Yes, sir, but, thank 
God, I am alive. I am going home 
without my right hand, but my 
mother will be glad to have what is 
left of me. Yes, sir, I am glad to be 
alive." "Yes, I am sure your mother 
will be glad to have you as you are. 
Shall I write to her for you, as you 
have lost your right hand?" Again 
he looked up, and said, "I did not 
lose it, sir ; I gave it." Yes ! and 
God, writing of his Son's sacrifice, 
wrote not that he lost him, but that 
he gave him. "God so loved the 
world that he gave—." Let God's 
love move you to give you yourself 
to him. — H. 

427. Salvation, a Great. A de- 
tachment of the American Army had 
just entered a small French village 
from which the enemy had fled. In 
an ecstasy of joy the few remaining 
inhabitants flocked out to greet them, 
singing, dancing, shedding tears of 
gladness as they approached. "Well, 
I'm glad to help save these people," 
exclaimed a young officer thought- 
lessly, "but I don't see why they 
have to get so crazy over it." "Ah, 
m'sieur," an old lady who had over- 
heard him replied, "that's because 
you don't know what you've saved 
us from !" Perhaps the reason many 
people do not get more joy and hap- 
piness out of Christ is because they 
do not realize what he has saved 
them from. Realize your salvation. 
Confess it. Praise God for it. — H. 

428. Salvation and Its Sequel. 

The man who really believes on 
Christ is saved by that alone. He 
can never be lost. As Rowland Hill 
used to say, "We two are so joined, 
he can't be in glory and leave me be- 
hind." But salvation from the pen- 
alty of sin is not the whole of salva- 
tion ; only beginning of it. 

The sequel to "becoming a Chris- 
tian" is following Christ. "Salva- 
tion" is a large word, including 
growth in character and usefulness 
and all the high attainments which 
are included in a genuine Christian 



life.— Rev. 
D.D. 



David James Burrell, 



429. Salvation, at Cost. We are 

told in these days that if one is 
really a Christian the fact will show 
itself in his every-day living, and no 
statement is truer. 

In the meetings conducted by one 
of our evangelists in a Texas city, 
a man definitely gave himself to 
Jesus Christ, then he said to his min- 
ister: "This will cost me something. 
I^ have a number of houses in this 
city used not only as saloons but as 
places of questionable resort. They 
have netted me a handsome income, 
but from to-night, with God's help 
I will give the whole thing up." The 
next rnorning he placed all his real 
estate in the hands of an agent, and 
said: "You must dispose of it, for I 
have become a Christian and under 
no circumstances would I ever do a 
thing that would so dishonor Christ." 
— ^J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

430. Salvation, by Asking. See 

Grace, Not Purchase. 

431. Salvation, Conditions of^ 

One of the passengers on board the 
Atlantic, which was wrecked off 
Fisher's Island, was Principal J. R. 
Andrews of New London. He could 
not swim, but he determined to 
make a desperate efifort to save his 
life. Binding a life-preserver about 
him, he stood on the edge of the 
deck waiting his opportunity, and 
when he saw a wave moving shore- 
ward, he jumped into the rough 
breakers and was borne safely to land. 
He was saved by faith. He ac- 
cepted the conditions of salvation. 
Forty perished in a scene where he 
was saved. In one sense he saved 
himself; in another sense he de- 
pended on God. It was a combina- 
tion of personal activity and depend- 
ence on God that resulted in his sal- 
vation. If he had not used the life- 
preserver, he would have perished; 
if he had not cast himself into the 
sea, he would have perished. So 
faith in Christ is reliance upon him 
for salvation ; but it is also our own 
making of a new start in life and 
the showing of our trust by action. — 
A. H. Strong, D.D. 



432. Salvation, Cost 

Atonement, Cost of. 



of. See 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS loi 



433. Salvation, in God's Way. 

You plant a seed in the ground — 
that's your part. You don't under- 
stand how it grows ; how God makes 
it grow is mysterious to you. How 
God turns our food into muscle and 
sinew is mysterious ; I don't under- 
stand it. My part is to eat — that's 
all. Outside of the physicians — and 
some of them may not know much 
about it — few of us have any idea 
at all as to how the body assimi- 
lates food. How God saves me, I 
don't know — that's God's part. Al- 
though God is omnipotent ^ he can't 
save you against your will. You 
must do as God tells you. If the 
doctor should give you a prescription 
and you should not use it, but should 
take some stuff of your own, you 
couldn't blame the doctor if you 
didn't get well. If we could fix up 
a little scheme of salvation of our 
own it would please us, but there is 
only one way to be saved, and that 
is God's way. What shall I do to 
be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ in your heart and confess him 
with your mouth, and you will be 
saved. — "Billy" Sunday. 

434. Salvation, Neglected. Last 
night, I had a half-waking dream, 
and I thought I stood out along the 
Hudson River Railroad track, and I 
saw a man sitting on that track. I 
went up to him and said, "My 
friend, don't you know you are in 
peril? The Chicago express will be 
along in a few minutes." I found he 
was deaf, and did not hear. I tried 
to pull him away from that peril, 
and he resisted me and said, "What 
do you mean by bothering me ? ^ I 
am doing nothing. Am I disturbing 
you? I am doing nothing at all. I 
am just sitting here." At that mo- 
ment I heard in the distance the 
thunder of the express train. A mo- 
ment afterwards I saw the headlight 
of the locomotive flash around the 
corner. I held fast the rocks that I 
might not be caught in the rush of 
the train. Like a horizontal thunder- 
bolt it hurled past. When the flag- 
man came, five minutes after, with 
his lantern, there was not so much 
as a vestige left to show that a man 
had perished there. What had the 
victim been doing there? Nothing at 
all. He was only sitting still — sitting 
still to die. To lose heaven, there is 
nothing to be done. Absolutely 



nothing. Breathe no prayer. Ask 
for no counsel. Fold your arms. 
Look down. Still! altogether still! 
and your destiny is decided and your 
doom is fixed, and your fate is but 
a dismal echo of the lepers' lamenta- 
tion, "If we sit still here, we die." 

435. Salvation, Offered. Presi- 
dent Lincoln issued the emancipation 
proclamation for all the slaves of 
the South. It granted freedom to 
all regardless of individual circum- 
stances, or desires or deserts. So 
God's grace offers forgiveness, sal- 
vation to all regardless of their past. 

436. Salvation, Sensation of. At 

Stonehaven, when I was a minister 
there, I was swimming out in the 
clear, cool bay, when the water got 
suddenly choppy, and my strength 
seemed suddenly to go from me. You 
that are swimmers know the sensa- 
tion. Exhausted, the waves flapping 
on your face in repeated blows as if 
to stun you, and beat you back to 
the current that was ready to seize 
you. No one in sight. Wearily on 
and on. I had almost given up, when 
suddenly there came to my foot the 
sensation of solidity amid the waves. 
Oh, what I felt as I stood there to 
recover breath, rescued from death! 
How solid the rock felt. How I 
thanked God that that rock had just 
been placed out in the bay for me, 
and that he had taken my sinking 
feet and fixed them there. That is 
the nearest that I can give to the 
sensation of the soul when Christ 
lays hold of you, saves you, and sets 
your feet on the Rock of Ages. — 
Rev. John Robertson. 

437. Salvation, Soul-hunger foFj 

See Soul-Hunger for Salvation. 

438. Salvation, What It Is Not. 

A great many things are said to be 
salvation to-day which are not salva- 
tion. For example: Service is not 
salvation. We are not saved by 
serving others. Turning over a new 
leaf is not^ salvation. No man is 
saved by doing that. Asserting one's 
manhood is not salvation. The un- 
saved man has no true manhood to 
assert. Right thinking is not salva- 
tion. That is the New Thought sub- 
stitute for the Gospel. Denying the 
existence of sin is not salvation. 
That is Christian Science's substitute 



102 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



for the Gospel. Denying self is not 
salvation. The unsaved man cannot 
deny self. Even sacrifice — man's ut- 
termost sacrifice in laying down his 
life for others — is not salvation. 
Perhaps some of these statements 
may surprise or challenge. So much 
the better. Make it very plain why 
none of these things is salvation and 
what salvation is. — C. G. Trumbull. 

439. Satisfaction, in Christ. His- 
tory tells us that an ancient king 
granted pardon to some criminals 
under sentence of death, but when 
they applied for relief at the palace 
gates the king refused them, protest- 
ing: "I granted you Hfe, but did not 
promise you bread." This is not the 
theory of the gospel ; Christ not only 
saves from destruction, but opens 
to the soul sources of rich, strength- 
ening, and endless satisfaction. 

440. Saved, by Service. See 

Service, Saved by. 

441. Saved, by Service. While I 
was in France T was asked to speak 
one Sunday afternoon at a camp 
where a thousand American soldiers 
were billeted. The meetings were 
in charge of the soldiers themselves. 
The chairman of the soldiers' com- 
mittee asked me what I was going 
to speak about. I told him that my 
subject was the two battles, the bat- 
tle for victory over our foe and the 
battle for victory over one's self. 

When the meeting was over, and 
it was from every standpoint one of 
the best-conducted meetings I ever 
attended, I said to the Y. M. C. A. 
secretary in charge: "Your buck pri- 
vate who has charge of the services 
here is a remarkably efficient man. 
From the questions he asked me I 
did not know whether I was going 
to pass muster or not." 

The Y. M. C. A. secretary smiled, 
and said: "I hope you sized up that 
buck private. There is a man who 
found himself in the universal shake- 
up of war. One night I got under 
his skin, and he told me his story. 
He is fifty-two years old, though he 
swore that he was only forty-four 
to get into the service. He used to 
be an evangelist, and from all I can 
learn he was an eloquent speaker. 
He lost his faith in God. He told 
me that he came to the conclusion 
that since there was no future life 



he might as well cut loose and get 
all he could out of this life. He 
went in for vice, but somehow the 
sordidness of it did not appeal to him. 
He tried drinking, but after a 
drunken debauch he found himself 
possessed of a raging headache and 
a feeling of regret and disgust. He 
took poison; but he took too much, 
and it failed to do the work. 

'When our country entered war, 
he decided that the best way to com- 
mit suicide was to enlist, and on 
every occasion volunteer for danger- 
ous service. When he got to France, 
the longing of his comrades for the 
old home ties and for the home land 
was too much for him; and so he 
began talking to them. In serving 
others he forgot himself. Before he 
knew it he was getting up entertain- 
ments for the boys. The next thing 
he knew he was conducting religious 
services, and became chairman of 
the committee to secure speakers for 
Sunday services. 

'When he talked to me, he said he 
could not explain it, but something 
inside of him seemed to be burned 
out, and he realized that in serving 
his fellow men he was serving him 
who had given his life to save men. 
He told me also that, if he lived 
through the war, he was going back 
to his work as an evangelist, because 
he realized the futiHty of living a 
life for self alone, and that, after 
all, the worth-while things of life 
must be taken on faith. He said 
that just as a wild duck born in the 
south flies north without any knowl- 
edge of where it is going except its 
faith that there is a north, so a per- 
son must with equal faith accept the 
great truth of immortality and the 
future life." — Fred Lockley. 

442. Saved, by Trusting God. A 

young man, distressed about his soul, 
confided in a friend. The friend 
said: "Did you ever learn to float?" 
"Yes, I did," was the surprised re- 
ply. "And did you find it easy to 
learn?" "Not at first," he answered. 
"What was the difficulty?" his friend 
pursued. "Well, the fact was I could 
not lie still ; I could not believe or 
realize that the water would hold 
me up without any effort of my 
own, so I always began to struggle, 
and of course down I went at 
once." 
"And then?" "Then I found out 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 103 



that I must give up all the struggle, 
and just rest on the strength of the 
water to bear me up. It was easy 
enough after that; I was able to lie 
back in the fullest confidence that I 
should never sink." "And is not 
God's word more worthy of your 
trust than the changeable sea?^ He 
does not bid you wait for feelings; 
he commands you to just rest in him, 
to believe his word, and accept his 
gift." 

443. Saved His Own Son. See 

Soul-Winning in Earnest. 

444. Saved, Joy of Being. Saved 
men can know a deeper joy than 
those who do not need to be saved. 
Redeemed sinners can know the joy 
of their Saviour as unfallen angels 
cannot know it. The supernatural 
light and joy in the face of a leper 
who has found Christ as Saviour, 
even while his physical leprosy con- 
tinues, is unforgetable. A mission- 
ary writing in the Korea Mission 
Field of September, 1921, of the lep- 
ers in the mission compound at 
Kwangju Station, says: *'Never have 
we seen so joyous a lot of people as 
these lepers. Like Moses' face^ their 
faces shone, though they knew it not, 
so great their gratitude and reverent 
love ! Nor have I ever seen so eager 
and pitiful a company as the group 
of 'shut-outs' at the Hmit of the leper 
compound, entreating to be admitted. 
Their request is granted as fast as 
kind friends furnish the modest 
stipend adequate for the purpose. 
Recently a kindly couple from Seoul 
visited this leper settlement; as they 
entered, five unfortunates clamored, 
'Give us life!' and the visiting gen- 
tleman said to Dr. Wilson, T will 
pay for their admittance.' An hour 
later at departing, four new cases 
had taken the places of the five ad- 
mitted ones and the wife said, 'Take 
in the four on my account' ; and, be- 
fore these visitors could get well 
away, between them they had as- 
sumed the expense for fifteen ad- 
mitted lepers who are commonly 
welcomed by the Korean inmates 
with the words, 'Come out of your 
hell into our heaven I' Thus 'the 
lame take the prey.' " — Sunday School 
Times. 

445. Saved, S. H. Hadley. See 
God, His Saving Power. 



446. Saving, by Reached-out 
Hand. A five-year-old boy, Ivan 
Lynn Ashcraft, whose home is in 
Folsom, a little hamlet in Delaware 
County, Pa., is hailed as a true hero. 
He and his playmates were sport- 
ing about the edge of a pond cov- 
ered with thin ice, when Httle Davy 
Ward, aged three, saw some object 
upon the ice which he desired, and 
reached out to get, and, losing his 
balance, he fell and broke through 
the ice. When his older brother saw 
it, he began to cry. A larger boy 
hastened to the rescue, but broke in 
himself, and barely escaped with his 
life. Then it was that the little hero 
with great skill and caution crept 
out to his little friend, and, using his 
own words, "When I saw Davy bob- 
bin' up and down I jes' reached out 
my hands and grabbed his'n." Thus 
a life was saved, and thus honor was 
gained. We may not all have oppor- 
tunity or ability to save a boy from 
drowning in a deep pool, but there 
are boys and girls, men and women, 
perishing all about us, and their go- 
ing down means an eternal ruin. 
What is needed in those who would 
rescue is a mind to appreciate the 
peril, a heart of compassion for the 
perishing, and a hand ready to reach 
out and save. The words of this 
little child tell it all : "When I seen 
Davy bobbin' up and down, I jes' 
reached out my hand and grabbed 
his'n." The saving hand is needed. 
— H. 

447. Saving Love of God. See 

God, His Love for the Lost. 

448. Saving Others, We Save 
Ourselves. Through Rochester, N. 
Y., runs the Genesee River, between 
steep and rocky banks. There are 
falls in the river and dark recesses. 
One time a gentleman, who lived in 
the city, had just arrived on the train 
from a journey. He was anxious to 
go home and meet his wife and chil- 
dren. He was hurrying along the 
streets with a bright vision of home 
in his mind, when he saw on the 
bank of the river a lot of excited 
men. "What is the matter?" he 
shouted. They replied : "A boy is in 
the water." "Why don't you save 
him?"_ he asked. In a moment, 
throwing down his carpetbag and 
pulling off his coat, he jumped into 
the stream, grasped the boy in his 



I04 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



arms, and struggled with him to the 
shore, and as he wiped the water 
from his dripping face and brushed 
back the hair, he exclaimed, "O God, 
it is my boy !" 

He plunged in for the boy of 
somebody else and saved his own. 
So we plunge into the waters of 
Christian self-denial, labor, hardship, 
reproach, soul-travail, prayer, anxious 
entreaty, willing to spend and be 
spent, taking all risks to save some 
other one from drowning in sin and 
death, and do not know what a re- 
flexive wave of blessing will come 
to our souls. In seeking to save 
others we save ourselves and those 
most dear to us, while others too 
selfish to labor to save other people's 
children often lose their own. 

449. Saving Souls, Never Give 

Up. In a village in one of the 
mining districts a kindly Christian 
woman was in the habit of visiting 
an old man who was ill and alone. 
He had the reputation of being a 
"surly swearing chap," and few of the 
neighbors went near him. Though 
the good woman received no thanks 
for her attention, she continued to 
try to help the poor old fellow, and 
always mentioned him in her evening 
prayers with her little boy, who be- 
came greatly interested in the "bad 
man," as he called him. One night 
after the man had thrown back her 
kind words with cursing and swear- 
ing, the child noticed that the usual 
prayer was not offered. "Have you 
given him up, mother?" he asked. 
"Yes, dear, I believe I have," was the 
reply. . "Do you think God has given 
him up, too?" questioned the boy, 
after a moment's thought. This view 
of the matter so impressed the mother 
that she continued praying and work- 
ing until she was rewarded by being 
used as the means of the man's con- 



450. Saviour, a Seeking. "The 
Son of Man came to seek and to 
save that which was lost." Luke 
19:10. One day as Jesus was pass- 
ing along a street in Jericho, a great 
crowd swarming about him, a little 
rich sinner wanted to see him. He 
ran on before and climbed into a 
sycamore tree, to make sure of see- 
ing him as he passed by. When 
Jesus came to the tree, he looked up 
and saw him, and said, "Hurry and 



come down, Zacchseus, for I must 
go home with you." With the Sav- 
iour salvation came to that house 
that day. 

Of course, it is always so. The 
little sinful tax collector was look- 
ing for Jesus that day, and soon 
found him, for Jesus was also look- 
ing for him. Whenever a sinner be- 
gins to hunt for Jesus he finds him 
in just a little while, for Jesus is 
always looking for the sinner. 

"Hello, little stranger! What's 
the matter?" asked a wagoner meet- 
ing a boy crying in the road. 

"I'm lost. I can't find my father," 
sobbed the child. 

"Is he a big man, with a long 
white beard?" 

"Yes, that's my father." 

"It's all right, then, because he is 
looking for you. Keep right on, 
and if you don't find him he will find 
you." Of course the lost was soon 
found. 

Any sinner, no matter how sinful, 
need not stay lost long. Just let him 
fully realize that he is lost and go 
to looking for his Saviour. He will 
find him quickly, for the Saviour is 
hunting for him. — Rev. W. G. Mar- 
tin. 

451- Saviour, a Seeking. "Be- 
hold, I stand at the door, and knock; 
if any man hear my voice, and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and 
will sup with him, and he with me." 
That is a fine statement of the Sav- 
iour's attitude toward every one in 
whose heart and life the kingdom is 
not set up. It is, as the poet has 
suggested, a "lovely attitude." It is 
his love for lost men that in- 
duces him to thus come and ask for 
admission. And though we have re- 
fused to open our hearts and lives 
to his coming, he still pleads with us 
for our own good. He stands and 
knocks ! _ Some have kept him out a 
long while. _ Have you or I ? If so, 
let us continue this opposition no 
longer. This is the day of salvation. 
"To-day if ye will hear his voice, 
harden not your heart." 

452. Secret Disciples. The boy 

was expressing the opinion of many 
older than himself when he said to 
his mother: "I should like to be just 
such a Christian as father is, for no 
one can tell whether he is a Chris- 
tian or not." This father is like the 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 105 



clock attached to a certain church, 
which possessed neither face nor 
hands, but which was wound up by 
the sexton on Sundays and continued 
to tick year after year, affording an 
apt illustration of the religion which 
many are content to possess. The 
movements of the clock were as reg- 
ular and accurate as anyone could 
desire, but, inasmuch as it kept the 
time to itself, no one was the better 
for Its existence. — C. H. Robinson, 
D.D. 

453. Seek First God's Kingdom. 

At the cashier's desk of a large store 
there was a notice that read some- 
thing like this : "Don't delay for a 
minute charging up goods that you 
have sold. No matter who is call- 
ing you, the rule of the house is to 
enter the charge first. The charge 
has the right of way here. In spite 
of clerks or customers, or anybody 
else, charge the goods. If the house 
is afire, get out quick, but charge the 
goods. Business is business." Our 
Master's charge is "Seek first the 
kingdom." No matter what else may 
call "Seek first the kingdom." — M. 
V. Wright. 

454. Seeking Saviour, The. A 

pleasant incident is recorded of Gen- 
eral Garibaldi. One evening he met 
a Sardinian shepherd, who had lost 
a lamb out of his flock, and was in 
great distress because he could not 
find it. Garibaldi became deeply in- 
terested in the man, and proposed to 
his staff that they should scour the 
mountains and help to find the lost 
lamb. A search was orp^anized, lan- 
terns were brought, and these old sol- 
diers started off full of eager ear- 
nestness to look for the fugitive. 
The quest was in vain, however, and 
by and by all the soldiers returned 
to their quarters. Next morning 
Garibaldi's attendant found the gen- 
eral in bed and fast asleep long 
after his usual hour for rising. The 
servant aroused him at length, and 
the general rubbed his eyes and then 
took from under his bed coverings 
the lost lamb, bidding the attendant 
carry it to the shepherd. Garibaldi 
had kept up the quest through the 
night until he had found the lamb. 

This illustration helps us to under- 
stand how Jesus Christ seeks lost 
souls in this world of sin, continu- 
ing the search long after others have 



given it up, seeking until he finds. — ^J. 
R. Miller, D.D, 

455. Seeking Souls. See Clerk 

or Salesman. 

456. Self or Christ? Martin 
Luther used to say: "When one 
comes and knocks at the door of the 
heart and asks: 'Who lives here?' I 
reply, 'Martin Luther used to, but he 
has moved out and Jesus Christ now 
lives here.*" There are just two 
tenants who, with unnecessary per- 
sistence, ask admittance to every 
heart — self and Christ. One of 
these occupies every heart. Which 
one is in yours? 

457. Self, the Hindrance. Two 

Christians were visiting mission sta- 
tions in China, and from time to time 
one of these men asked the Chinese 
converts what in their opinion, was 
the greatest barrier to the spread of 
Christianity in China. Almost in- 
variably the answer that came back 
was, "Ourselves." These Chinese 
Christians saw true. Are we as se- 
vere with ourselves as they were with 
themselves? Are we ready to let 
Christ do away with the last ves- 
tige of barrier that we are offering 
to that proclamation of his love 
which he wants to make through us 
to others? 

458. Shepherd, the Seeking. See 
Bible, a Sheep Book. 

459. Sight, Spiritual Through 
the Holy Spirit. A little boy was 
born blind. At last an operation 
was performed ; the light was let in 
slowly. Then one day his mother led 
him out of doors and uncovered his 
eyes, and for the first time he saw 
the sky and the earth, "Mother," he 
cried, "why did you not tell me it was 
so beautiful?" She burst into tears 
as she said, "I tried to tell you, dear, 
but you could not understand me." 
So it is when we try to tell what is 
in Christ, Unless the spiritual sight 
is opened by the Holy Spirit, one 
cannot understand. — The Sunday 
School Chronicle. 

460. Sin, Abandoned. When 
Evan Roberts was asked for a special 
message for the Welsh churches, he 
replied: "Abandon all known sin, re- 
nounce all doubtful indulgences, 



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THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



promptly obey the Spirit, and pub- 
licly confess Christ." This is what 
the Ephesian magicians did when 
they burned their books. Every 
Christian has some sacrifice to make, 
some things to be burned when he 
purposes with sincerity of heart to 
lead a wholly Christian life. Have 
we made our bonfires? 

461. Sin, and Salvation. Gideon 
Ousely, who passed like a flame of 
holy fire through Ireland and 
preached the Gospel, tells us how he 
got his call. The voice said, "Gid- 
eon, go and preach the Gospel." 
"How can I go?" said I. "O Lord, 
I cannot speak, for I am a child." 
"Do you know the disease?" "Oh, 
yes. Lord, I do." "And do you 
know the cure?" "Indeed I do." 
"Go then and tell them these two 
things — the disease, and the cure. 
All the rest is nothing but talk." 



*f 462. Sin, Blotted Out. John 
Maynard was in an old-time country 
school-house. Most of the year he 
had drifted carelessly along, but in 
midwinter some kind words from his 
teacher roused him to take a new 
start, and he became distinctly a dif- 
ferent boy, and made up for the 
earlier faults. At the closing ex- 
amination he passed well, to the great 
joy of his father and mother, who 
were present. But the copybooks 
used through the year were all laid 
on a table for the visitors to look 
at ; and John remembered that his 
copybook, fair enough in its latter 
pages, had been a dreary mass of 
blots and bad work before. He 
watched his mother looking over 
those books, and his heart was sick. 
But she seemed, to his surprise, quite 
pleased with what she saw, and 
called his father to look with her; 
and afterward John found that his 
kind teacher had thoughtfully torn 
out all those bad, blotted leaves, and 
made his copybook begin where he 
started to do better. To all who 
would forsake sin God offers a new 
chance, and promises to blot out all 
old sin and make the record begin 
with the new start. — Rev. Franklin 
Noble, D.D. 

463. Sin, Christ's Power to For- 
give. "The Son of man hath power 
on earth to forgive sins." Matt. 9 : 6, 
Mr. Fred B. Smith, the Young Men's 



Christian Association worker, was 
once speaking to a company of men 
in India. While he was talking he 
noticed one of his Mohammedan 
hearers who was much interested. 
From time to time this man would 
put his fingers in his ears in order to 
shut out the sounds of words which, 
according to the teaching of his re- 
ligion, he should not hear. But his 
face showed his longing: and some- 
times he would forget to use his fin- 
gers. At the end of the talk he came 
to the speaker. "I can see yet the 
look of longing on his face, as he 
began to speak," Mr. Smith has said. 
"Do you really believe Jesus Christ 
can forgive sins as you say, and that 
he can give peace to those borne 
down by the burden of their sins?" 
the man asked. "Indeed I do be- 
lieve it," was the answer; "he can 
do just what he says." A moment 
the Mohammedan paused, then he 
threw back his shoulders, and said, 
with an air of conviction : "Then he 
will conquer the world." And with 
a sigh he turned and left the room. 
Let us believe in his power to for- 
give and, believing, yield ourselves in 
submission. — H. 

464. Sin, Detected. "Be sure 
your sin will find you out." Three 
young men in a store had been 
watched by a detective, and as they 
left the store the detective accosted 
them. One of them indignantly de- 
nied that he or his companions had 
taken anything. In the midst of his 
denial a stolen alarm clock in his 
pocket went off; and the police pa- 
trol wagon was summoned. — Sunday 
School Times. 

465. Sin, Escaping. See Christ, 
His Blood Cleansing. 

466. Sin, Its Seriousness. Says a 
writer in "Record of Christian 
Work": "When I was a pastor in 
Chicago a father had sent for a 
great physician from Austria. The 
papers said that his fee was $20,000 
beside all his expenses. He came to 
do something for the little daughter 
of the rich man. I don't know what 
was the matter with the child, but 
it was something serious because of 
what the father did about it. What 
is sin? I don't know, but I know it 
is very serious from what the Fa- 
ther did about it." 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 107 



467. Sin, Overcome. I was in- 
terested in the bold heading of an 
article in a magazine entitled "Tak- 
ing Sin Out of Business." The three 
letters "sin" in the middle of "busi- 
ness" are underhned heavily. I have 
been such a dullard heretofore that, 
until I saw these three letters under- 
lined, I never reaHzed that the word 
"sin" occurs in the middle of "busi- 
ness." The great need of America 
is, as far as possible, to take the sin 
out of business.— Rev. Benjamin 
Cox. 

468. Sin, Reaction of. "Be sure 
your sin will find you out." The 
Farmers and Merchants Bank of 
Utica, Mich., has found a way of 
putting mustard gas to peace-time 
use. Tubes of it were placed in the 
vault, and when robbers blew open 
the safe the fumes forced them to 
flee so hastily they left eighty-five 
cents of their own cash and a large 
kit of burglar tools. Suppose all 
sin reacted upon us as obviously as 
that ! — Christian Herald. 

469. Sin, Secret. In the quad- 
rangle of Leland Stanford University, 
near San Francisco, there stood a 
magnificent memorial arch, built so 
largely, solidly, and splendidly that 
it seemed as if it would stand for- 
ever. But when the earthquake 
came the great arch collapsed in 
ruin. Its foundations were disclosed, 
and then the truth was seen. In- 
stead of being of solid stone, as they 
should have been, the builder had 
put in chips and rubble. The Leland 
Stanford Arch is a type of many 
lives which seem successful for a 
while, and then suddenly collapse. 
The secret sin comes to Hght; the 
foundation's rottenness is disclosed; 
the whole structure falls in wreck. 

Build on Christ. Built on Christ 
your life-structure will stand. Build 
not of wood, hay, stubble, but of 
gold, silver, precious stones. Then 
your character will not collapse. You 
will not lose your reward. — H. 

470. Sin, Sorrow for. I sat in 
a home a few days ago playing with 
a boy of ten. His face was bright 
as the sun. He looked as happy as 
any child in the home, calling me 
"Uncle." Presently his mother had 
missed something, and she came in 
and said, "Jack, have you taken so- 



and-so?" His head dropped. "Jack, 
have you taken so-and-so?" No an- 
swer. "Jack," and she came and put 
her hand on his shoulder, "did you 
take—" "Yes, mother," and he be- 
gan to cry. Oh, he was sorry; he 
did look sorry; he sobbed as though 
his heart would break. What for? 
He was just as guilty five minutes 
before, and he knew he was. What 
rnade him sorry? Sorry that he had 
sinned against his mother? No. 
Sorry that he had sinned against 
God? No. Well, what was his sor- 
row? He was sorry because he was 
found out. And there are multitudes 
of professing Christians whose reli- 
gious sorrow is no deeper. That is the 
sorrow that worketh death. There is 
a godly sorrow — sorrow because I 
have sinned against God. "Against 
Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and 
done this evil in Thy sight. . . . For 
thou desirest truth in the hidden 
parts, honesty where no eye but 
Thine can see, transparency where no 
light but Thine can penetrate." 
There is a sorrow that means death. 
There is a sorrow for sin that work- 
eth life. Which is yours? — Gipsy 
Smith. 

471. Sin, Wages of. Seemingly 
high wages may shrink into insignifi- 
cance when they are investigated. 
Satan's inducements to work for him 
are usually accompanied by an offer 
of wages that seem at first worth 
while. But take a second look. A 
striking incident of the war comes 
out in a news item published by the 
New York World, giving an inter- 
view with Venizelos, Prime Minister 
of Greece. He told of a conversa- 
tion he had had at the beginning 
of the war with the German Minis- 
ter at Athens. Germany offered 
Greece "very great and substantial 
benefits" if she would remain neu- 
tral, not going to the assistance of 
her ally, Serbia. "Germany will give 
you Monastir, and as much more of 
Serbia as you want," said the Ger- 
man. Then answered Venizelos: 
"You will allow me to translate your 
offer into my own words. What you 
do is this : You ask me to dishonor 
my signature, to dishonor my coun- 
try, and to violate its obligations to- 
ward Serbia, and as remuneration 
you offer me a part of the corpse of 
that which I am expected to kill." 
And, with fine satire, Venizelos con«- 



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THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



eluded, "My country is too little to 
commit so great an infamy." As 
wages, part of the corpse! It re- 
minds us of what God says of Satan's 
invariable wages : "For the wages of 
sin is death." God's free gift, given 
outright because we can never earn 
it, is better, — eternal life in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. — Sunday-School 
Times. 

472. Sin, Way of Hard. "The 
wages of sin is death, but the gift 
of God is eternal life, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." Rom. 6 : 23. The 
Christian Way is the way of eternal 
life. Any other way is the way of 
the transgressor, and "the way of the 
transgressor is hard." Over in the 
Tombs in New York there is a pas- 
sageway leading from the courtroom 
into the penitentiary. In one place 
in the courtroom are the words in 
iron letters, "The way of the trans- 
gressor is hard." Over the entrance 
to the passageway are these words : 
"A Bridge of Sighs." A court offi- 
cer when asked why it was called 
"A Bridge of Sighs" said :^ '/Well, 
most of those who go to jail this 
way are young people. When they 
get to this place, they begin to real- 
ize at last that they have made a 
hard fate for themselves, and most 
of them break down and weep bit- 
terly. The passageway is well 
named. The life of the violator of 
law is a dreadful one." Yes, for a 
man must reap what he sows. How 
much better to be in the way of 
salvation. This is God's way, and 
his paths are the ways of "pleasant- 
ness and peace." — Dr. E. F. Wiest. 

473. Sinner, a Sleeping. A 

French boy made his servant wake 
him every morning with the cry, 
"Rise, Monsieur le Comte, you have 
great things to do to-day!" Christ 
comes to the sleeping sinner, with 
his offer of salvation, calling : "Young 
man, I say unto thee arise !" 

474. Sinner, God's Love for. 

Gipsy Smith tells a story of the way 
in which he once quieted a riotous 
meeting. The socialists and agnos- 
tics of the town would not give him 
a hearing, but shouted for a consid- 
erable time at the top of their voices. 
When the din subsided for a mo- 
ment, the preacher picked out an 
old man sitting in the front seat who 



seemed to be the ringleader. "Have 
you any children?" the missioner 
asked. "Yes, guv'ner, I have." 
"How many?" "Three." "How 
many boys?" "Two and a girl." 
"What is the oldest?" "A boy.'* 
"Is he a good lad?"^ "No, guv'ner, 
I can't say that he is ; he gives me 
lots of trouble. I think sometimes 
that he will break my heart." "Do 
you love him?" "Aye, that I do. 
I sometimes think that I love him 
most of all." "Well," said the mis- 
sioner, "don't be surprised if God 
loves us in ^ this world more than 
any other beings in the universe, just 
because we have given him so much 
trouble." 

475. Sinners Saved, What Kind? 
The church of which Mr. Samuel 
Colgate was a member entered into 
an agreement to make special prayer 
for the conversion of sinners. For 
some days they prayed earnestly. 
One day applicants for church mem- 
bership were invited to present them- 
selves. A woman came forward. 
Heart-broken, she told her story of 
what a sinner she had been, and 
how God had forgiven her for 
Christ's sake, and she wished to slip 
into a corner of the church and have 
the fellowship of God's people as 
she made the start for heaven. The 
silence was oppressive. Then a mem- 
ber arose and moved that action on 
the application be postponed. Mr. 
Colgate arose and said in substance: 
"I guess we made a blunder when 
we asked the Lord to save sinners. 
We did not specify what kind. I 
think we had better all ask God to 
forgive us for not specifying what 
kind of sinners we want saved. He 
probably did not understand what 
we wanted." They all saw the point. 
The woman was received into fellow- 
ship. 

476. Soul, a Neglected. I had in 

one of my churches a very lovely 
lady, past middle age. She was al- 
ways in demand for leadership in all 
kinds of work among the poor, and 
in all those practical every-day af- 
fairs that belong to the temporal 
and social life of the congregation. 
I supposed, of course, that she was 
a member of the church. 

After I had been in the congrega- 
tion for a few months, my wife, who 
had been looking over the church 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 109 



records, said to me one day, "Why 

is it that Mrs. 's name is not on 

the church record?" I went to look 
for myself, and saw that it was not 
there. I went back, and looked up 
the old records, thinking there might 
be a mistake in transcribing ; but her 
name was nowhere to be found. It 
interested me much, and I went 
around the block, and called on one 
of the leading members, and on in- 
quiring found that, though she had 
been attending the church for twenty 
years, she had never made any pub- 
lic confession of Christ. 

I walked right on to her home, and 
after we were seated in her parlor 
I turned to her and said, "Mrs. 
, I have come here specially to- 
day to ask you why it is that you, 
who take so much interest in the 
church, and undoubtedly have more 
sympathy with it than anything else, 
have never made an open confession 
of Jesus by uniting with His 
church?" 

For reply she burst into tears, and 
said, '1 have been going to this 
church for twenty years, and have 
been on good terms with all the pas- 
tors, and have known nearly^ all 
the members of the congregation; 
and no one ever asked me before 
to become a Christian or join the 
church." 

We had a season of prayer, and, 
as I went away, with her face beam- 
ing through her tears, she said: "I 
thank God that you came to-day. I 
know now that I shall be much hap- 
pier than I have been." The follow- 
ing communion she took her rightful 
place as a member of the church. — 
Rev. Dr. Louis Albert Banks. 

477. Soul, a Wandering Wel- 
comed. A traveler tells how a lark 
which followed a ship for a consid- 
erable distance was compelled through 
sheer weariness to alight. It was so 
worn out that it was easily caught. 
The warmth of the hand, too, was 
so agreeable that the bird settled 
down upon it, not in the least afraid. 
This is a touching picture of the soul 
aroused by the Spirit of God and 
blown out of its own reckoning by 
the winds of conviction. The warm 
reception which the weary bird re- 
ceived at the hands of the passenger 
conveys but a faint idea of that wel- 
come which will greet the worn-out, 
sin-sick souls who commit themselves 



to the hands of the Saviour. — C. H. 
Spurgeon. 

478. Soul, Battle for a. In re- 
ligion there should be no wavering. 
There is an inward conflict concern- 
ing religion which must be settled 
if one would have peace and be 
strong. Dr. John Hollard said there 
are an angel and an animal in each 
breast. The animal clamors for the 
gratification of the desires of the 
flesh; but the angel refuses to yield. 
The angel says : ''This is not the best 
way. This is not the high way. 
There is a better way." The animal 
seizes the scepter, usurps the throne, 
and proclaims his superiority and 
sovereignty. But the angel strug- 
gles to disarm the tyrant and cast 
him out. In some cases the issue 
is in favor of the angel and in other 
cases it is in favor of the animal. 
It is the old battle between Jehovah 
and Baal, between God and mam- 
mon, between Christ and the world, 
between the flesh and the Spirit. 
The apostle puts it in this way : "The 
flesh lusteth against the Spirit and 
the Spirit against the flesh." 

479- Soul, Give It a Chance. "I 

made up my mind that I would give 
my soul a chance to be saved." I 
shall never forget these words as 
they fell from the lips of a young 
lady, as she turned to me with a 
smile when I took my seat beside 
her in the inquiry meeting during the 
great revival in Paducah, Ky. It 
was the first night we held an in- 
quiry meeting. I had asked all who 
were interested about their salvation 
to remain to an after meeting for 
personal conversation. As I sat 
down beside her, she turned to me 
with a smile, and said, in substance: 
*T do not know whether I did right 
or not to stay to this meeting. I 
am afraid that you will think I am 
acting a hypocrite, I do not feel any 
special interest on the subject of re- 
ligion, but when I heard that these 
special services were to be held, I 
made up my mind that I would give 
my soul a chance to be saved ; and 
I determined to attend every meeting. 
So when I heard this meeting an- 
nounced, I remained." 

Before the meeting closed this 
young lady became one of the hap- 
piest Christians I ever knew. How 
often since, as I have looked upor^ 



no 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



the multitudes of men and women 
who never read the Bible, who never 
go to hear the gospel, who will not 
enter the church, who will use no 
means to seek for the light or truth, 
have I thought of those words : "I 
made up my mind that I would give 
my soul a chance to be saved." How 
many people are lost because they 
will not give their souls a chance 
to be saved! You cannot get them 
to even listen to the gospel. 

Friend, give your soul a chance. 
Come to the house of God and hear 
the story of Christ's love for you. — 
W. H. Clagett. 

480. Soul-Hunger for Salvation. 

Human nature doesn't respond to the 
thought of God's love as once it did. 
*'You don't know, Mr. Cowan," a 
young miss just home from college 
said to me, "how self-sufficient peo- 
ple of culture and intellectual re- 
sources are." 

I know how self-sufficient they 
think they are until they discover 
their mistake. I met one of them 
recently in a farmhouse by the road- 
side, where her five-thousand-dollar 
car was stranded. She was having 
a Httle lunch of a housewife's fresh- 
baked bread with a new pat of butter 
and a glass of Jersey milk. And I 
overheard her saying : "I didn't think 
that anything could taste so good as 
this. How perfectly sweet and satis- 
fying it is ! It takes me back to the 
bread and butter my mother used to 
spread for me when a little girl. I 
had forgotten how good it tasted 
until now. And to think that we 
have to go back to the French 
dishes of those tiresome hotels and 
cafes!" 

The psalmist knew what he was 
talking about when he cried, "Re- 
store unto me the joy of thy salva- 
tion." He was hungry for the old 
kind of bread; he had been eating 
*'that which is not bread." Now lis- 
ten ; there is a latent hunger, a po- 
tential craving in every unsaved soul, 
in a great multitude of merely nomi- 
nal church-members, for deep, abid- 
ing, satisfying quiet and repose of 
soul and strength of life such as 
Christ gives. They have only to see 
it in the face in times of affliction 
and trial, to realize that there is 
something wanting in their lives, to 
envy the one who really has what 
they lack, and who shows it. Our 



business is to create a market for 
bread. 

Mr. WilHam Millar says: "In the 
business world a good salesman soon 
learns to create a demand for the 
goods he has to sell. In selling the 
gospel to the unsaved we must create 
a desire for salvation and instill a 
great unrest in the soul of the other 
person. — Rev. John F. Cowan, D.D. 

481. Soul, "Is It Well With Thy 
Soul?" A Christian worker after 
an ocean voyage told how one beau- 
tiful Sabbath evening on the OceaniCj 
in mid-ocean, a large group of Welsh- 
men out on the main deck sang the 
great old church hymns. Many of 
the twenty-three hundred souls on 
board crowded about to listen. They 
sang: "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," 
in Welsh and repeated it in Eng- 
lish. Just as they finished the line, 
"Safe into the haven guide," the cap- 
tain on the bridge tapped three bells 
(half past nine). The watchman on 
the first lookout repeated the three 
taps loudly on his larger bell, and 
then sent out over the decks and out 
over the waves the cry, thrilling when 
first heard, "All's well!" Far up in 
the crow's nest, nearly one hundred 
feet from the deck, the watchman in 
the second lookout caught it up and 
sent it out farther yet into the ocean 
darkness, "All's well !" One on deck, 
thinking of eternal safety, said in a 
moment, "Wouldn't it be fine if 
every soul on this great liner could 
from the heart and for himself echo 
it yet again, and fling it up to the 
angels above, "All's well!" 

482. Soul-saving, Our Business. 

"I was staying once in a summer 
hotel on the shores of Lake Erie," 
says Rev. Dr. A. C. Dixon. "It was 
very pleasant! All that we did was 
to eat and drink and sleep and take 
walks and row on the lake. Oppo- 
site the hotel lay a life-saving sta- 
tion, where somebody was always on 
the lookout for the rocket, and on 
the listen for the call of distress. 
At that life-saving station they also 
ate and drank, but their business in 
life was not eating and drinking. 
They slept, but their business was 
not sleeping. When they could they 
went for walks and rowed for pleas- 
ure on the lake, but that was not 
their business. Their great business 
was the saving of lives in peril. 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS in 



Which are we," asks Dr. Dixon, 
"life-saving stations, or only just 
summer hotels?" 



483. Soul-saving Work. 
Rescue, The Work of. 



See 



484. Soul, Trifling With. A spot 
is pointed out at Niagara Falls from 
which a father threw his little girl 
headlong into the seething torrent, 
without having the slightest thought 
of doing so. He took her in his 
arms and gave her a playful swing 
out over the abyss merely to see if 
it would frighten her. The child in 
a paroxysm of fear gave a sudden 
jerk and fell with a shriek into the 
great abyss. You say he had no 
business to trifle with her in that way. 
No more have you a right to trifle 
with your soul by swinging it out 
in foolish indifference over the great 
chasm of eternity. 

485. Soul-winning, by a Friend. 
See Friend, Wins Friend to Christ. 

486. Soul-winning, by Persist- 
ence. "He brought him unto 
Jesus." John 1 : 42. The story is 
told of a rather timid young member 
of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 
that he tried in vain to induce a 
young friend of his to come to the 
church services and Bible class. He 
used to call for him every Sunday, 
but it was of no use. Finally, how- 
ever, he won him, and when asked 
how he did it, replied : "Well, I got 
tired of calling on him so often, so 
at last I decided to go and board at 
the same house with him!" 

487. Soul-winning, by Personal 
Word. See Work for Souls, Per- 
sonal. 

488. Soul-winning, How to Do 
It. A missionary thus describes 
some of the methods of personal 
work used by the Korean Christians. 
"Soon after my arrival I was assigned 
to do visiting in certain homes, and 
a little book was given me containing 
the names of each believer. On each 
page was a second name, and when 
I asked what that meant I was told 
that that was the name of the unbe- 
lieving woman for whom this believ- 
ing woman had promised to work and 
pray until she became a Christian. 
As soon as one had become a Chris- 



tian her name was transferred to an- 
other place, and the first sister would 
select another for whom she would 
work and pray. Pretty definite per- 
sonal work, don't you think?" 



489. Soul-winning, 

See Fishing for Men, 



Is Fishing. 



490. Soul-winning, in Earnest. 

The story is told that one time the 
parsonage of Epworth, England, 
burned. The minister thought all his 
family were safe, when one of the 
children appeared at a window crying 
to be saved. Peasants made a ladder 
of themselves by standing one upon 
the other's shoulders, and the boy 
came to safety in this way. That 
boy was John Wesley. Think of it 
— a ladder to save a boy for such a 
work as Wesley did in the world. 
Probably those peasants enjoyed tell- 
ing, in after years, how they saved 
him. Now any one who helps to save 
a soul for God has had the same 
privilege those men had. 

491. Souls, Neglected. A teacher 
had among her pupils a young man 
of reckless habits. At length, when 
she heard that he was fast drifting 
to ruin, she found courage to speak 
to him. The young man was much 
affected by her earnest appeal, in- 
fluenced as he knew she was by love 
for his soul. When he had mas- 
tered his emotion, he said to her in 
tremulous voice, "Had any one ever 
before spoken to me as you have 
to-night, I might have been a Chris- 
tian long ago ; but no one has 
thought me worth saving," Let us 
beware of the neglect of souls. 

492. Souls, Winning. 

"Earth's richest gems are gaudy 

trash, 
And honor's glittering stars are dim, 

And fame's rewards are valueless 
Beside the jewels which will flash 

Forever in the crown of him 
Who wins a soul to righteousness." 

493. Starvation, Spiritual. See 

Pearls Not Bread, 

494. Stenographer, Doing Per- 
sonal Work. In an Eastern city, 
while waiting to see a man in his 
office one afternoon, his stenographer 
came into the room several times. 



112 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Finally the impulse came to me to 
speak to her about doing personal 
work. To my surprise she was 
greatly interested, so I gave her a 
pamphlet telling how to begin and 
what is God's purpose in soul-win- 
ning. The next morning I called the 
office on the phone and the young 
woman answered with the remark : 
"The book you gave me last night 
has made me think seriously and 
realize that I have been backsliding. 
But I have decided to begin over 
again to try to win souls." 

When in the same city a short time 
since, I called at this man's office 
again, and there learned from this 
child of God that she had indeed 
begun to live the surrendered life. 
I learn from correspondence of the 
souls she is leading to Christ, and 
of her growing desire to win many 
from the path of sin and indiffer- 
ence. That ten-minute conversation 
on personal work has set one soul 
on fire for God, and the icy indif- 
ference of other hearts is melting 
in the glow of this one's love and 
enthusiasm. — Rev. J. Wilbur Chap- 
man^ D.D. 

495. Step, the First. The Arabs 
have a proverb, "Over the doorstep 
is half the journey." What do you 
think of that proverb as applied to 
the beginnings in discipleship of 
Christ? Does the proverb apply in 
the journey of the Christian life? 
What detail at the beginning of the 
Christian life would you call "over 
the doorstep"? 

496. Strategy, Get Them Young. 

A revival church looks after its chil- 
dren and young people carefully, 
leads them to Christ, trains them for 
service, and gives them something 
definite to do. 

497. Strategy, Wins a Boy. A 

speaker at a Sunday-school conven- 
tion was the guest of an old school- 
mate whom she had not seen for 
years. As she entered the home her 
hostess said: "I have been hoping 
and praying that you might show 
me how to reach my boy's heart. 
He ought to be a Christian, and he 
is not. When he was younger I 
could talk to him of these things, 
but he will not listen to me now." 

A little later the boy came home 
from school. For a few moments 



after he was introduced to the guest 
there was an embarrassed silence. 
Presently he blurted out: "Say, Mrs. 
R., do you know anything about 
pigeons ?" 

"No, Joe," she said, "I don't know 
much about them, but I would hke 
to know." 

"Well," said the boy, "Im just the 
fellow that can tell you." "But," he 
added, "I could do better if you 
would go out to the barn where they 
are." 

As they passed through the dining- 
room the mother said: "Is that boy 
dragging you out to see those 
pigeons? Don't go into that dirty 
place !" 

"But I want to see them," said 
Mrs. R., "and Joe is going to tell 
me about them." 

As the pigeons were discussed it 
presently developed that there was 
only one pair of the choicest kind. 
Joe and a boy friend were joint 
owners of the flock, and they about 
to^ dissolve partnership. As neither 
wished to separate this pair and 
neither was willing to relinquish them 
to the other, the matter of an equita- 
ble division offered some difficulties. 

"I tell you," said Joe, "I don't see 
what we are going to do about that 
pair of tumblers." 

"Joe," said Mrs. R., "what do you 
think a Christian boy would do ?" 

"I don't suppose I am a Christian,'* 
he said. 

A very few words finished the 
conversation and left the boy think- 
ing. 

Each day that Mrs. R. spent in 
the home she had a talk with Joe 
about being a Christian, but every 
time the subject was introduced by 
the pigeons. When the visit ended, 
the mother said, as she wept with 
her head on her friend's shoulder : 
"You have taught me the lesson that 
I needed to learn. I think that my 
boy was more interested in pigeons 
than in anything else in the world. 
Because they bored me I lost every 
opportunity that I had been looking 
and longing for." 

A strong interest is an open door- 
way to the child's mind and heart. 
Can a parent afford to be bored by 
that which interests the child? 

498. Struggle, Give up. Christ 
reserves his hand for a dead lift. 
A man in London saved 28 people 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 113 



from drowning. He was asked how, 
and said : *'I can swim well. I plunge 
in and wait until they grow too weak 
to struggle, and then I seize them." 
Christ can save only when we no 
longer struggle to save ourselves, but 
let him do all. 

499. Subdued to Save. See Con- 
quering to Save. 

500. Sunday School, Opportun- 
ity in. No department of the 
church is so well prepared to do 
normal, thorough evangelism as the 
Sunday school. It is the kingdom's 
greatest field of evangelistic oppor- 
tunity and its most successful har- 
vesting agency. Where a school 
lacks cultivating and harvesting 
power the failure may be due to want 
of desire, but more probably to lack 
of definiteness. 

Systematic evangelism in the Sun- 
day school calls for four elements : 
Purpose, preparation, prayer and 
plan. When these exist in working 
proportion a school will obtain the 
end desired. 

501. Tact, Caught His Man. 
Rev. W. Y. Fullerton tells how, when 
conducting a mission one Sunday, he 
noticed a man in the congregation on 
the Sunday m^orning in his Sunday 
best. But in the afternoon that same 
man was there in his working dress. 
Mr. Fullerton went down and spoke 
to him. "What is the meaning of 
this?" he said. "Are you going to 
work?'* "No," was the reply, "but 
this morning something was said that 
stirred me up to go and seek my 
brother. I knew he had no Sunday 
clothes, and I knew he would not 
come if I put on my Sunday clothes, 
so I put on my working-day clothes 
and I went for him, and here he is." 

502. Teaching. "Did you spend 
much time in discussing how far 
Cana was from Sychar?" one teacher 
said to another as they came from 
the classroom. "I didn't mention it,'* 
was the quick reply. "I was too 
much taken up with the thought of 
how far some of my scholars were 
from Christ." 

503. Testimony, a Living. An 

automobile bears upon its hub the 
name of the firm that made it. 
Wherever the automobile goes it car- 



ries the reputation of its maker. It 
does not need to talk; every mile 
it makes writes a new advertisement 
a mile long. So as soon as a man 
takes upon him the name of Jesus 
Christ, every good deed he does is 
an advertisement of Jesus Christ, 
whether he says anything about re- 
ligion or not. 

504. Testimony, for Christ. The 
Rev. Joseph W. Kemp, in a sermon 
at Toronto, May 20, 1917, told of a 
letter received from a friend engaged 
in nursing wounded soldiers in which 
the case of a young man was re- 
vealed who was told by the surgeons 
one day that an operation would be 
necessary in order to save his life; 
and so serious was the operation that 
in its performance his power of 
speech would be completely de- 
stroyed. The young man resigned 
himself to the sad news, and then 
requested permission to use his voice 
once more. The request was granted, 
and stepping out into the middle of 
the hospital ward, his voice, which 
had often been used in the Saviour's 
service before, rang out his last song : 

"Rock of Ages! cleft for me. 
Let me hide myself in Thee! 
Let the water and the blood. 
From Thy wounded side which 

flowed. 
Be of sin the double cure — 
Cleanse me from its guilt and power." 

505. Testimony, Revival of 
Needed. A boy six years of age 
who had been deprived of the power 
of speech from birth was submitted 
to an operation, and surprised his 
nurses by requesting a glass of 
water, thus proving that the attempt 
to give him his missing faculty had 
been successful. A previous exami- 
nation had revealed the fact that the 
parietal bone was pressing upon the 
vocal centers of his brain. The sur- 
geons decided that an operation on 
the bone, which would relax this 
pressure, might work the desired re- 
sult. They were naturally delighted 
with the outcome. 

It is interesting to note that 
through the faculty of hearing this 
boy had acquired an intellectual ajy- 
prehension of the forms of speech 
and needed only the removal of the 
retarding cause to enable him to utter 
his wants in intelligible language. 



114 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



^ There is a parable here for Chris- 
tians. Every disciple of our Lord 
has a mental and moral apprehen- 
sion of the obligation of his fellow- 
ship with Christ. How many there 
are, alas, whose power to express 
their convictions appears to be be- 
numbed or neutrahzed. The conver- 
sion of the world to Christ depends 
not wholly or chiefly upon the or- 
dained minister, but upon the con- 
tinuous witness given by those who 
are saved through divine grace and 
the power of faith in Christ to trans- 
form character and beautify human 
life. 

The spirit of evangelism which ani- 
mates thousands of Christians who 
never testify to their confidence de- 
mands vocalization. The unanimous 
audible expression of devotion to our 
Lord on the part of church members 
would create an instant revolution by 
turning millions of our fellows, whom 
we ignorantly suppose to be indif- 
ferent to religious interests, to the 
consideration of that which is eter- 
nally clamoring for relief in every 
soul of man. Let there be a revival 
of Christian testimony. 

506. Thief, Dying or Living One. 

See Christ, Robbing. 

507. Things, Not Enough. A 

mother who frequently left her home 
for a few days at a time used to 
bring each of the children a little 
gift. One day she purposely neg- 
lected the gifts. The little ones met 
her in the hall with expectant faces. 
*T did not bring you any presents 
this time," said the mother, "be- 
cause — " "We don't care, mama, 
dear; you are the best present," said 
one little one. Can we say to Christ, 
"Thou art the best gift; thou art 
all in all to me; there is nothing 
on earth I desire but Thee; I would 
rather have Thee than any earthly 
gift?" 

508. Time, Redeeming the. A 

story is told of a young girl who 
had been ill for a fortnight, and was 
told by the physician that she could 
not get well — more than that, her 
days on earth could be counted on 
the fingers. "How long?" she asked, 
softly. "Probably about ten days." 
She drew a long breath, "Do the 
rest know?" The physician nodded. 
"Poor mother/' she murmured. Then 



she looked up with a smile. "I 
thank you for telling me." 

Her father sat with her at the 
noon hour. Her slender fingers nes- 
tled in his big, warm hand. "Will 
you ask Uncle Norman to come up 
to see me?" she said. "This evening 
will be a good time." The man's 
face darkened. He and his brother 
had not spoken for five years. 
"You'd better send a note." "I'd 
rather you'd take the message — 
please." "All right, I'll tell him," 
and the girl felt a tear on her cheek 
as he stooped to kiss her. 

"If only I could see them friends 
before I go !" she whispered to her- 
self. 

Her longing was granted. At her 
bedside the barrier of years was 
broken down and the two were 
brothers again. 

So it went on for all the ten days. 
A cousin in college who was not 
making the most of himself was seen 
and talked with so tenderly and seri- 
ously that he gave her his sacred 
promise to lead an entirely different 
life. Other sweet deeds filled up the 
days. Her Hfe did end as the doc- 
tor had predicted, but how she had 
redeemed the time. This little true 
story has earnest suggestion for those 
of us who do not certainly know 
that we have to die "in ten days.'^ 
The night cometh. What would we 
do if we had but one day left? 
What would we — ought we — might 
we do in it, before the dark comes?' 

509. Times for Revival. Nothing 
in the economies of Grace is more 
obvious than that God reveals him- 
self more at certain times than at 
others. The prophet says, "Seek ye 
the Lord while he may be found; 
call upon him while he is near." 

One time when David was hard' 
pressed he inquired of the Lord, and 
the Lord told him what he should 
do. And the Lord said : "When thou 
hearest the sound of going in the 
mulberry trees, then shalt thou be- 
stir thyself." David did as he was 
told, and the result was that David 
conquered his enemies. 

There is an apt illustration of this 
truth in the electrical world. Elec- 
tricians tell us about the electrical 
potential. The potential is the en- 
ergy with which free electricity man- 
ifests itself. Now this potential dif- 
fers greatly at diSerent times. Free 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 115 



electricity sometimes gathers in such 
quantities that we have electrical 
storms. The lightning quivers in 
every cloud. At times it breaks out 
in awful shocks that fairly shake 
the ground. 

In winter the writer has known 
the electrical potential so high as to 
make the hair on the head sparkle 
as the hand was rubbed over it. 

Now there is a spiritual potential 
that differs greatly at different times. 
When the children of Israel marched 
through the wilderness this potential 
was high. It was high in Egypt, as 
seen in the plagues; it was high at 
the crossing of the Red Sea; it was 
manifested at Horeb ; it was shown 
at the Mount. During Christ's so- 
journ on earth the spiritual poten- 
tial was always high. We read, for 
example, in Luke 5 : 17, that "the 
power of the Lord was present to 
heal them." 

The spiritual potential was high 
with the apostles. 

The spiritual potential has been 
high with some evangelists. The po- 
tential has been high with the Wes- 
leys, with Whitefield, with Finney, 
with Moody and others. 

It is vital for Christians to study 
this matter, and to learn the condi- 
tions of the manifestations of God's 
Spirit. God's Spirit manifests itself 
in various ways, some of the condi- 
tions of which are stated : 

Faith is one condition. When 
Peter lost his faith he began to sink. 

Prayer is another condition. It 
was after many days of prayer on 
the part of the disciples that Pente- 
cost came. 

Consecration of the people of God 
is another condition. The spiritual 
potential can be lessened and de- 
stroyed. Sin is a destroyer of it. — 
Author Unknown. 

510. Tracts, Use of. It was in 

the dining-car of a Pennsylvania 
Pullman at the time of the evening 
meal. A business man, who might 
have been recognized as one of the 
officials of a great corporation, was 
passing through the door back to his 
car, when one of the waiters eagerly 
ran after him and stopped him. The 
business man turned and recognized 
the waiter who had served him at 
noon, and to whom he had given a 
little tract that told the story of a 
remarkable conversion. 



The waiter explained that he had 
read the tract soon after receiving 
it, and could not get the thought out 
of his mind all the afternoon. He 
felt that he must see this business 
man again and ask him what he 
ought to do. With the ground so 
prepared, it did not take this soul- 
winner (whose chief business on all 
his important trips for his company 
is the King's Business), to point out 
the way of salvation to this new 
friend, and both went on their way 
rejoicing. 

This business man is a master in 
the art of soul-winning, and one of 
the chief means that he uses in his 
personal work is carefully selected 
tracts. _ He never feels well equipped 
on a jourhey unless he is supplied 
with a number of these little gospel 
messengers. 

511. Train Platform, Riding 
Outside. See Church, Being In- 
side. 

512. Transformed by Love. 

Professor Drummond tells of a young 
girl whose character ripened into rare 
loveliness. Her friends watched her 
with wonder. They could not under- 
stand the secret of it. She wore 
about her neck a little locket, within 
which no one was allowed to look. 
Once, however, when she was very 
ill, one of her companions was per- 
mitted to open this sacred ornament, 
and she saw there the words, "Whom 
having not seen, I love." This was 
the secret. It was love for the un- 
seen Christ that transfigured her life. 
If we think continually of the Ckrist, 
meditating upon him, thinking over 
sweet thoughts of him, and letting 
his love dwell within us, we shall 
grow like him. 

513. Transgressors, Have Hard 
Way. See Sin, Way of Hard. 

514. Trust Christ for Salvation. 
A man came all the way from Hol- 
land to see Mr. Spurgeon in London 
and to ask him how he might be 
saved. The great preacher said: 

"Well, you have come a long way 
to ask that question. You know that 
you are to believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

"But I cannot believe on Jesus 
Christ," the man replied. 

"Well, now, look here," said Mr. 



Ii6 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Spurgeon, "I have believed in him 
a good many years, and I do trust 
him ; but if you know something or 
other against him I should like to 
know it, for I do not like to be 
deceived." 

"No, sir, I do not know anything 
against him." 

"Why don't you trust him, then? 
Could you trust me?" 

"Yes, I would trust you with any- 
thing," said the man. 

"And yet you can't trust Jesus 
Christ? Do you mean to say that?" 
asked Mr. Spurgeon. 

The man stood still for a moment, 
and then said: "Dear me, I can see 
it now. Why, of course I can trust 
him. I cannot help trusting him ; 
he is such a blessed one that I must 
trust him. Good-bye, sir, I will go 
back home ; it is all right now." 

And why cannot you and I, dear 
friend, trust Jesus Christ heartily 
for all that he has promised us in 
the Gospel — forgiveness, strength, 
guidance, comfort, eternal life? — 
John Y. Ewart, D.D. 

515. Trust Christ Fully for Sal- 
vation. A young lady while cross- 
ing the ice felP through. A gentle- 
man hearing her cry, hastened to the 
spot. He put out both hands, say- 
ing: "Clasp my hands tightly, and I 
will save you." 

She replied, "I cannot lift up both 
hands. One rests upon the ice. 
Were I to raise it, I should surely 
sink." 

He answered, "Let go your hold 
upon the ice, trust me and I will 
save you. Were I to take but one, 
I could not draw you out." 

She obeyed, and he drew her out 
rejoicing. 

So Christ waits to save imperilled 
sinners, but they must give him both 
hands and trust him fully. 

516. Turning, to God. A writer 
in the Atlantic Monthly described a 
little person of some three years who 
was insatiably fond of stories. When 
there waa no one to tell them to her 
she made them* up herself. The 
writer was impressed with the in- 
variable ending of these stories, 
which was always, "And him went 
home to him's muvver." "Bears, 
lions, tigers, even elephants and croc- 
odiles pass through the most agitat- 
ing and unusual adventures, but in 



the end they all go home to their 
mother." And the writer adds that 
this is an astonishing bit of wisdom 
to be evolved by a person of three. 
The signs are thickening fast that 
the whole world, disappointed with 
its grand policies and enfeebled with 
its philosophers, is beginning to long 
for something like this. It may be 
a blow to one's pride, but the greatest 
philosophy of life has long since been 
stated, "When he came to himself 
he said, I will arise and go to my 
father," 

517. Unfaithful, Lament of. 

"Must I go and empty-handed 
Must I meet my Saviour so? 

Not one soul with which to greet him. 
Must I empty-handed go?" 

518. Unresponsive to God. A 

man cannot get these Divine bless- 
ings if he does not want them. You 
take a hermetically sealed bottle and 
put it into the sea, it may float about 
in mid-ocean for a century, sur- 
rounded by a shoreless ocean and 
it will be as dry and empty inside 
at the end as it was at the beginning. 
So you and I float, live, move, and 
have our being in that great ocean 
of the Divine love in Christ, but you 
can cork up your hearts and wax 
them over with an impenetrable 
cover, through which that grace does 
not come. And you do it, some of 
you. — A. Maclaren, D.D. 

519. Voices, Getting Our. See 

Work, Personal. 

520. Waiting, to Be Saved. 

Once when I was convalescing from 
a long illness, it was suggested that 
for the benefit of the change I visit 
the British Provinces. The arrange- 
ments were all made when, unex- 
pectedly, another malady threw me 
on my bed again. How disappoint- 
ing this was ! For what was I wait- 
ing longer in the sick room? I soon 
received a satisfactory answer. Pick- 
ing up the newspaper, I read that 
the steamer in which I would have 
sailed struck a reef on entering St. 
John harbor, and almost instantly 
sunk. _ It may be that in his mercy 
God is now holding back some of 
you from a more disastrous ship- 
wreck. Before you embark upon the 
ocean of eternity, he would have you 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 117 



take passage in the only craft that 
can furnish assurance of a safe voy- 
age, and bring you to the desired 
haven. It is this that you may be 
waiting for. Waiting to be saved! 
— Dr. J. M. Gray. 

521. Watchfulness, Duty of. A 

recent writer describes the strange 
alluring splendor of the beds of 
anemones which cover the floors of 
some western seas. These gaudy, 
dainty flowers appear like blossoms 
from the garden of Paradise, so bril- 
liantly colored are they. Yet, in fact, 
they are cruel, devouring monsters, 
for let a poor fish only touch them, 
and a thousand poisonous threadlets 
dart out, seize the victim, and in a 
moment he is consumed by the inno- 
cent-looking blossoms. So, under the 
secret attractions of much of our 
social, commercial and religious life, 
there are deadly snares, and destruc- 
tion that lie in wait for the unwary. 
Many a fair-looking friendship, fes- 
tivity and recreation holds a peril 
striking at the soul. We need the 
Divine wisdom to preserve us, for 
things are not what they seem. — 
Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

522. Water, of Life. A Bible- 
study group of college girls were 
discussing the familiar passage in 
the Sermon on the Mount, and were 
asking why Christians are like salt. 
All thought at once of salt's pre- 
servative qualities. Then a Chinese 
girl in the group quietly suggested, 
"Salt creates thirst." The truth went 
home. As one of the leaders after- 
ward said, "Our lives should be such 
that people would continually come 
to us and ask us to explain our- 
selves." Do our lives create in others 
the thirst that only the Water of Life 
can satisfy? 

523. Weakness, Appealing to 
Strength. See God, His Love and 
Saving Strength. 

524. Weakness, Appealing to 
Strength. Preaching at Cardiff on 
how man's weakness appeals to God's 
strength, Rev. Dr. A. C. Dixon used 
the following striking illustration. 
"A friend of mine in America was 
very fond of the chase, and lived 
in a country where the woods 
abounded with wild deer. One morn- 
ing, as he was walking across his 



field, he heard the sound of hounds 
in the distance, and as they ap- 
proached, looking through the cracks 
of a high fence, he saw a Httle fawn, 
very wearied, its tongue hanging out, 
and its sides lathered with foam. 
The little thing had just strength 
enough to leap over the fence, and 
stood there for a moment, with its 
great liquid eyes gazing about in a 
frightened manner. When it saw a 
hound leap over the fence not far 
away, its first impulse seemed to 
cause it to run again, but instead of 
running away, it came and fell down 
in a heap at the feet of my friend. 
He said: *T stood there and fought 
dogs for nearly half an hour. I just 
felt that all the dogs on that county 
could not capture the little fawn 
after its weakness had appealed to 
my strength." God says, "Whosoever 
will may come." He says: "He that 
Cometh unto me I will in no wise 
cast out." In our weakness and need 
of salvation we can never appeal to 
God in vain. 

525. Weapon, the Soul-Winner's. 

God's preeminent method in soul- 
winning is his Word. "You tell in- 
teresting stories when you are trying 
to win some one, but I think that 
the Word of God is the thing that 
brings conviction, and you ought to 
use it more," was a wife's loving 
counsel to her husband; and he dis- 
covered it to be true. Ralph C. 
Norton, who was the Director of 
Personal Work for the Chapman- 
Alexander Missions, was talking 
with some friends about the su- 
preme work of winning men one by 
one, in which God has used him 
wonderfully. When they noticed the 
almost exclusive place he gave to 
the Bible in personal work, one asked 
him: "What do you do, Mr. Norton, 
in cases where the unsaved man does 
not accept the Bible as having any 
authority?" "Well, if I had a fine 
Damascus sword with a keen double- 
edged blade I would not sheath it in 
a fight just because the other man 
said he did not believe in it." — ' 
Sunday-School Times. 

526. Will, Christ Waiting One. 

See Christ Waiting Our Will. 

527. Will, The. It was said by 
a celebrated orator in the House of 
Lords a century ago that an Ensr- 



ii8 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



lishman's house is his castle, that the 
winds of heaven might enter ^ by 
every window, that the rains might 
penetrate through every cranny, but 
that not even the sovereign of the 
land dare enter into it, however hum- 
ble, without its owner's permission. 
God treats you in the same way. He 
says : "Willingly open your heart to 
me, and I will give you every bless- 
ing but I must be made welcome." — 
G. Warner. 

528. Winning a Brother. Each 
of the first followers of Christ seems 
to have gone in search of one who 
was knit to him by ties of kindred 
and love. It is a poor recommenda- 
tion of Christ's Gospel if we only 
tell it to strangers and leave our 
own loved ones in ignorance of it. — 
Rev. J. W. Kemp, D.D. 

529. Winning Soldiers to Christ. 

"Ten o'clock at night is a good time 
to fish for men, and I have led about 
thirty of the men on night guard 
duty to Christ. When it was pour- 
ing rain I took them hot coffee, 
which they much appreciated. All 
seasons of day and night, of sum- 
mer and winter, are good for seeking 
for men. I led one man to Christ 
in an automobile. One boy was on 
his way to deliver an urgent tele- 
gram. 'Oh, I haven't got time,' he 
said, and I asked him if he were 
courting a girl how long it would 
take her to say yes. He saw the 
point and yielded at once." — Howard 
A. Banks. 

530. Winning Souls, by Per- 
sonal Word. See, Decision, A 
Strong Man's. 

531. Winning Souls, the Let's 
Go Get Him Spirit. "A few days 
ago, I was talking with an unhappy, 
mentally groping veteran of the A. 
E. F.," says R. D. Henkel. "He was 
one of the last contingent to return 
from overseas ; 'I've been away a 
couple o' years,' he said, 'and I got 
a kinda new perspective. Before I 
went away I thought things in this 
old country of ours were just about 
right ; never could be improved on. 
But now I get worried. I know you 
will say I been over there so long I 
got the European angle and am just 
copying them when they sav : "All 
the Yankees think about is money." 



But ain't that pretty much right? 
Hit most any of the folks here at 
home in the pocketbook and you hit 
a mighty tender spot. What they 
need most is a little more of the 
spirit of the boys who did the job 
in France: you know, "Hey, fellows, 
there's a buddy out there in trouble. 
Let's go get him." And you went, 
regardless of Jerry. I been in 
churches since I got back, morning 
and evening, and I've heard some 
good sermons, but not one of them 
showed me the congregation was sit- 
tin' up listening for the whisper to 
"Let's go get hi.-i." ' " 

This boy was measuring the folks 
at home by the standards of unselfish 
devotion to comrades that were 
brought out on the battlefield. But 
was he so far wrong? A new sense 
of responsibility is spreading through 
the Church and through the devoted 
members of the Church. With awak- 
ened consciousness of this responsi- 
bility is coming a demand that it be 
manfully shouldered and that each 
member shall become instinct with 
the "Let's go get him" spirit. — H. 

532. Winning Souls, Uncon- 
sciously. See Influence, Uncon- 
scious. 

533- Witness-Bearers. Spirit- 
filled Christians will never be like 
the rivers which flow to the Arctic 
Ocean — frozen at the mouth. 

534. Witness-bearing, for Christ. 
See Life, Testifying to Christ. 

535- Witnessing Against Christ. 
See Christians, Long-Faced a Hin- 
drance. 

536. Witnessing for Christ. See 

Confessing Christ at School, 

537. Witnessing for Christ. See 

Faith, Expressing. 

538. Witnessing for Christ. An 

eminent jurist of New Jersey, who 
was an unbeliever, stepped into a 
prayer-meeting room to see a man 
on business. It was a testimony 
service, and as he waited a number 
of his neighbors testified concerning 
the reality of Christian experience. 
He reasoned "If these people were 
my witnesses in the courtroom I 
should win the case. If their testi- 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 119 



mony is reliable in other matters, 
why not concerning spiritual things ?" 
He rose and confessed his doubts 
and asked for help. He is now a 
class leader in that very church. 

539. Witnessing, for Christ. "Ye 
shall be my witnesses." Acts 1 : 8. 
A number of years ago, a young 
school-girl in Birmingham, England, 
accepted Christ in a Gospel meeting. 
The moment she found the Saviour 
she had a great longing to win 
others to him. Two or three years 
later, while attending high school, 
she sought to bring her schoolmates 
to a knowledge of Christ. Some- 
times she would speak to a girl at 
recess, and would run upstairs to 
get her Bible to show her a passage 
of Scripture. When she returned, 
the girl had probably gone, and the 
opportunity was lost. She endeav- 
ored to quote verses from the Bible, 
but found she would make mistakes. 
Finally she decided to carry a Testa- 
ment always in her pocket, so she 
could show the other girls the way 
of life right from God's Word, any- 
where and at any time. Another 
girl began to do the same thing, and 
another, and another, and thus was 
started the Pocket Testament League, 
the young girl never dreaming that 
God would take her humble ef- 
forts and make a mighty world- 
wide movement. — George T. B. 
Davis. 

540. Witnessing for Christ, Joy 

of. A happy, rollicking, healthy 
schoolboy of sixteen had the right 
idea of the joy of witnessing for 
Christ, when he wrote to a cousin 
just before a summer reunion : "What 
a responsible position we two hold 
among our cousins ! Just think, we 
are the only ones who are Christians 
among them. If they could only be 
made really hearty Christians, what 
splendid times we'd have this sum- 
mer! For, after all, I don't know 
of any subject I am so interested in 
as Christ." 

541. Witnessing, in a Hard 
Place. In a South Coast town, 
some years ago, a business girl who 
was having a very hard time among 
her friends and suffering much per- 
secution for her Christian testimony, 
came to a friend of mine who was 
holding a series of special Sunday 



evening services in a large theater. 
She told him she was afraid sne 
must give it all up. He said to her, 
"Tell me, where do we put the 
lights?" She looked puzzled at his 
question, so he answered it, "We put 
the lights in a dark place," he said. 
In a moment she saw his meaning, 
and realized God had put her in those 
difficult surroundings that she might 
shine for Jesus in the midst of dark- 
ness. She went back determined to 
be more courageous than ever in her 
witness for Christ. A few weeks 
later, after the theater service, she 
came to him with a group of other 
girls, all radiant with joy. "Oh," 
she said, "the thirteenth from our 
business house has decided for Christ 
to-night." 

542. Won to Christ by a Word. 

There are many ways in which un- 
converted people are led to accept 
the salvation that is offered through 
Christ. It is a most fortunate thing 
that God has not decreed that only 
in one way will he grant salvation to 
sinners. He makes use of a large 
number of agencies to bring unsaved 
ones to himself. Oftentimes, just 
a word or tv/o, spoken to an unsaved 
one by some Christian, has been the 
means of turning him to the Lord. 
Dr. Augustus H. Strong, widely 
known as having been, for many 
years the president of Rochester The- 
ological Seminary, has given the fol- 
lowing account of the means of his 
conversion : "One afternoon I was 
standing, when the south wind was 
blowing in the month of March, in 
front of the college chapel, and the 
college bell was ringing for evening 
prayers. A hand was laid upon my 
shoulder. I looked around and saw 
a man who, for two years and a 
half, had sat next to me in the reci- 
tation room. Evidently something 
was agitating him, for the muscles 
of his face were twitching, and as 
I looked into his face, he said : *0h, 
Strong, I wish you were a Chris- 
tian,' and then the bell stopped ring- 
ing and we both had to rush in to 
evening prayers. But that one word 
never left me until I gave my heart 
to God. I have often thought how 
httle a thing will sometimes turn the 
whole current of a man's life. For 
me, that was the parting of the ways, 
that one word was my salvation." 
It was a word fitly spoken, and I 



I20 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



believe that the Holy Spirit influ- 
enced that student to speak the 
needed word to young Strong. Per- 
haps the student had long been think- 
ing that he ought to say something 
to his classmate about his salvation, 
but had not sufficient courage to do 
so. It may have cost him a hard 
struggle to get to the point where 
he could say a few words. It may 
be that he prayed God to give him 
the right opportunity, and the right 
words. And how simple was his 
message. He just said: "Oh, Strong, 
I wish you were a Christian." — Rev. 
C. H. Wetherbe. 

543. Worldliness, Brings Not 
Happiness. See Christians, Only 
Half-Hearted. 

544. Work for Christ Accepted. 

There is a beautiful story told of 
Professor von Herkomer, the cele- 
brated sculptor and painter. His fa- 
ther, who was himself a sculptor, 
lived to a great age; and in his de- 
clining years the keen sight and 
sensitive touch, so necessary to the 
modeling which up to the end of his 
life he delighted to do, departed to 
a large extent from him. The model- 
ing he did in these later years was, 
of course, far from reaching his ac- 
customed standard. 

After he went to bed, however, 
each night the brilliant son who loved 
him would go into the studio whf^- 
the old man had been at work 
taking his work in hand, would' . 
rect all its deficiencies, giving it ' ^.* 
a touch and there a touch, and roi^^ld 
ing off its corners and crudities, as 
he was so well able to do. Then 
when the old man came to the studio 
in the morning, the time when his 
failing eyesight was keenest, he did 
not see the imperfections and was 
happy in the work, all unconscious 
that someone else who loved him had 
been correcting his work and beauti- 
fying it. 

We do not know if the story is 
true, but we are sure that is what 
Jesus does for us when we honestly 
do our best for him.^ He who has 
begun the work by inspiring us to 
begin, will overrule its mistakes and 
transform its poorness by his own 
beautifying touch until it is some- 
times of real value to his cause in 
the world. Let us not be afraid to 
try to do personal work for Christ. 



He can use and bless and perfect our 
most imperfect efforts. — H. 

545. Work for Souls, Personal. 
On one occasion I was holding a 
series of meetings in a certain city, 
and up in the gallery at my right, 
night after night, sat a gray-haired 
old man. He was evidently un- 
der deep conviction, but he would 
never rise when the invitation was 
given. 

One night I pointed him out to one 
of the lady assistant ushers, and said 
to her, "To-morrow night I want 
you to sit near him, and when the 
invitation is given, ask him to rise." 
She protested, and declared that she 
could never do it, but I insisted, and 
the next night she took a seat just 
behind him. 

When the invitation was given, K 
sat as before, unmoved. Presentl> 
I saw the lady lean forward and say 
something to him ; in a moment rt^r^rQ 
the old man rose to his -^te, to 
prayer, gave himself t'^ .^^nrist, and 
became a devoted f^Jllower of the 
Lord. — Dr. Ottma. . 

546. Wo:''t'v" Personal. Eighty- 
five per cp .. of the business in the 
commerr^ir world is done by per- 
sonal ' i)hcitation. Successful busi- 
ness lien have discovered that they 
' M sit idly by and wait for busi- 

sS to come to them. They must 
: after the business. No method 
xias yet been devised that will take 
the place of personal solicitation in 
commercial lines. The Church should 
be as wise in this matter as are the 
men of the world. Men are won into 
the Kingdom of God by personal 
soHcitation and manifestation of per- 
sonal interest. If the Church forgets 
or overlooks this fact, she will find 
herself coming short of that success 
which her Master desires and her 
mission should command. 

547. Work, Personal. There was 
a king of Lydia in olden times who 
had a son who had the misfortune 
to be totally dumb. The prince dwelt 
in a splendid court of his father, un- 
able to utter a word. Then came 
dreadful misfortunes. The Persians 
fought the Lydians, and Crcesus was 
overthrown. A soldier was about to 
kill the unhappy monarch, of whose 
rank he was not aware, before the 
eyes of his son. In that moment of 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 121 



horror, fear and love did what hu- 
man skill had not done. "Spare him ; 
he is the king !" cried the prince. His 
effort to save his father had burst 
the string which tied his tongue. If 
we were as anxious to snatch others 
from eternal death as this poor prince 
was to save his father we should 
find that we too could speak; we 
should no longer be silent on the 
subject of heaven and hell. — Sunday 
School Chronicle. 

548. Work, Personal. A Chris- 
tian gentleman spoke to his caddie 
while they were waiting together on 
the golf links; the boy became a 
Christian, and later on a minister of 
the gospel. 

A Sunday-school teacher took one 
of her class of boys for a walk one 
Sunday afternoon when the session 
of the school was over; she told 
him of her concern that he should 
become a Christian, and had the joy 
"ing him take his stand for 
Christ. 

A father i"aveled one thousand 
miles to tell h; v son that he was 
concerned about . « soul, and he 
had the joy of winu ^<? him to the 
Saviour. 

A business man in o of our 
largest cities makes it the ru of his 
life to speak of Christ to a> with 
whom he has business dealinj 'i 
there is the slightest possible cha. 
for him consistently to do so; 
has always been thanked for hx. 
kindness, and has never been re- 
pulsed. 

As the followers of Christ, we have 
the only cure for sin, the only hope 
for those in despair, and we are 
privileged to point out the only way 
that leads to eternal life, and hav- 
ing this inestimable privilege we are 
called of God to speak and not be 
silent, to work and not be idle, to 
pray and not fail. — Rev. J. Wilbur 
Chapman, D.D. 

549. Work, Personal. See Won 
to Christ by a Word. 

550. Work, Personal by a Boy. 

See Boy, His Devotion. 

551. Work, Personal Effort for 
Souls. "I ought to have been 
yours," said a bright, happy girl to 
Miss Havergal. "What do you 
mean?" was the reply. "When I was 



seeking the Saviour, I put myself in 
your way several times, hoping that 
you would speak to me about this 
matter, but you did not speak to me, 
and another led me to the Saviour.'* 
One star less ! Miss Havergal never 
forgot that lesson. Let me speak 
God's word faithfully. Let us not 
miss our opportunities to win souls 
to Christ.— <H. 

552. Work, Rewarded. A Sab- 
bath school teacher, because no con- 
versions had occurred in her class of 
sixteen young men, resigned, think- 
ing herself to blame or unfitted for 
the great work. Seeing the unflag- 
ging interest of her pupils neither 
superintendent nor pastor would con- 
sent to it. In her anxiety she prayed 
more earnestly for the Holy Spirit's 
help. 

One day while thus pleading she 
was so strongly moved to go and see 
a certain one at his home that she 
at once yielded, and in that home 
parlor she so told her anxiety that 
when prayer was suggested the pupil 
kneeled with her and soon yielded 
to Christ and was most happily con- 
verted. Thus encouraged, she visited 
another, and another in turn, as op- 
portunity opened, till she saw the 
whole sixteen won to Christ and 
added to the Church. 

As vacancies occurred in her class 
others joined, who were often con- 
'-^rted. These pupils passing out into 
business world were urged by 
to write annually a letter as to 
Christian life, till finally she 
Vc receiving as years rolled on over 
two hundred letters from mission- 
aries, lawyers, mechanics, farmers, 
physicians, and others from various 
parts of the world, still busy in pul- 
pit, or Sabbath school, or other 
church work.^ 

What if this teacher had persisted 
in her determination to give up her 
class? Would God have held her re- 
sponsible? Will he hold you re- 
sponsible if you give up? "Let us 
not (as soul-winning Christian work- 
ers) be weary in well doing; for in 
due season we shall reap, if we faint 
not." 

553- Work, the Spirit of. Some- 
times God uses peculiar methods to 
reach the human heart. Illinois 
maintains an institution for deaf 
mutes at Jacksonville. During a re- 



1225 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



vival at one church, there were not 
sufficient visible results to regard the 
meeting much more than a failure — 
as man judges. But a woman 
teacher from the deaf-mute school 
had brought her class to the church 
nightly, and all had occupied places 
in the gallery. By use of sign lan- 
guage, she had translated the preach- 
er's appeals so that the twenty-one 
pupils understood. Nothing was said 
about the results. After the meet- 
ing closed, all twenty-one presented 
themselves for membership as con- 
verts of the meeting. The Lord 
works when we may think his ear is 
heavy, his eye closed, and his hand 
hanging supine. It is our business 
to continue activity for him. — Reli- 
gious Telescope. 

554. Workers, Sent Home. A 

few years ago a pastoi' was in the 
midst of his revival meeting with 
only moderate results. Ont night at 
the close of the public service he 
called his Sunday-school teachers 
and officers to meet him in a side 
room for conference. After prayer, 
he handed to each teacher a blank 
slip of paper, and asked them to give 
the number of scholars in their 
classes ; the number of members of 
the church ; and the number unsaved. 
Not a single teacher could do it. 
It was an impressive moment. The 
pastor sent these teachers home, and 
asked them to make a careful in- 
vestigation and report two nights 
later. At this meeting it was discov- 
ered that there was 147 pupils in the 
school not Christians. After much 
prayer and planning, God led eighty- 
seven of these into the kingdom.— 
Religious Telescope. 

555. Workers Together With 
God. Out m India in the moun- 
tains I have heard in the twilight 
hoijr a call from the ridge below. 
Away through the stillness comes the 
caM, and from the ridge above me 
comes the response. And then I can 
hear in a moment more a faint call 
from a far ridge, away up and be- 
vond, sounding almost like a distant 
echo. What did it mean? It meant 
that the man close above me was 
passing the word from the man be- 
low to the man beyond. The man 
below could never have reached the 
other man except for the man who 
stood on the middle ridge and massed 



the message on. Oh, friends, there 
is a man down here who will never 
hear the Man up there, unless you 
become the one on the middle ridge. 
— C. A. R. Janvier, D.D. 

556. Works, and Faith. See 

Struggle, Give Up. 

557. Works, Not of. I remem- 
ber hearing of a young man who 
went to a minister of Christ in great 
distress about his spiritual state. He 
said to the minister, "Sir, can you tell 
me what I must do to find peace?" 
The minister replied, "Young man, 
you are too late." "Oh!" said the 
young man, "you don't mean to say 
I am too late to be saved?" "Oh! 
no," was the reply, "but you are too 
late to do anything. Jesus did every- 
thing that needed to be done twenty 
centuries ago." "Not of works." 
Eph. 2:9. 

558. World, Unsatisfying. When 
on a visit to Manchester I saw, on 
the grounds of my host, a seagull 
trying to amuse itself with a pie- 
dish. There was a little water in it, 
and the bird of the ocean was doing 
its best to make the most of its 
struggling instinct. What a sight to 
see this bird, with its instinct for the 
unmeasured ocean, trying to satisfy 
itself with a pie-dish. But I say, 
is not that a picture of human nature 
trying to make itself contented in 
the conditions of this secular life? — • 
Rev. W. L. Watkinson, D.D. 

559. Yes, to God. The time to 
say "Yes" to God is now. It is a 
mistake to think that obedience 
means that we shall be robbed of 
the pleasures of life and that heavy 
burdens will be placed upon us. On 
the contrary, when we say "Yes" to 
God we enter upon paths of peace. ^ 
To say "No" to him turns us into ' 
paths of suffering, disappointment, ^ 
and despair. Israel's forty weary 
years of wandering in the wil- 
derness came from the fact that the 
people said "No" to God when he 
urged them to enter the promised 
land. 

The time to say "No" to every 
suggestion _ of ^ evil is ^ the moment 
when it arises in the mind. He who 
hesitates is lost. Pope knew human 
nature when he wrote, 



FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 123 



"Vice is a monster of so frightful 
mien. 
That to be hated needs but to be 
seen ; 
But seen too oft, familiar with its 
face, 
We first endure, then pity, then 
embrace." 

The successful business man is the 
one who sees clearly, makes quick 
decisions, sticks to them, and carries 
them through. The successful Chris- 
tian — that is to say, the Christian 
that becomes and does that which 
God wishes him to be and do — is 
the one who "by reason of use" has 
exercised his spiritual faculties in 
penetrating the mask of evil and 
shunning it, and in discerning the 
hidden good and choosing it. — Rev. 
R. P. Anderson. 

560. Yielding to Christ. A call 
came over the phone, asking if I 
would be in the office at noon. I 
replied that I would, and asked no 
further questions. At 12:30 a well- 
dressed young woman called, and I 
invited her into the office. In re- 
sponse to my question as to how I 
could serve her, she said, "I want to 
be a real Christian. Can you tell me 
how?"^ 

I said that I surely could. She was 
a woman of fine character, and I 
found that she knew her Bible well 
and could quote many passages on 
the way of salvation. After some 
questioning I discovered that she 
could not believe that salvation was 
for just one individual, and that one 
herself. I told her of the Father's 
love in Christ Jesus, and that it was 
hers for the asking, and that if she 
would give her life over to him in 
surrender he would take it and bless 
it, sanctify it, and even glorify it. 

At this point she arose, and falling 
on her knees by the chair offered as 
best she knew how a beautiful 
prayer of dedication. I noticed that 
full victory had not yet come, how- 
ever, and after we rose from our 
knees I said: "Isn't it great to have 
one's life taken over by such a dear 
friend as Jesus, who will guide, 
protect, save, and use it to save 
others ?" 

A smile of triumphant faith lit up 
her face. I then knew that the battle 
wp.s over. — Related by a member of 
the Personal Workers League. 



561. Yielding, to God. See Yes, 
to God. 

562. Yielding, to God. See 

Saved, by Trusting God. 

563. Young Christians. We can 

begin the Christian life by simply 
seeking to follow Christ every day 
and do his will. There is the story 
of a horse that ran away one morn- 
ing and came back in the evening. 
When the master upbraided him the 
horse repHed: "But here am I, re- 
turned safe and sound. You have 
your horse." "Yes," returned the 
master, "but my field is not ploughed. 
My horse has not worked for me." 
So, when boys and girls refuse to 
begin the Christian life, and wait un- 
til they are grown up, they fail to 
serve the Master, and they harm 
themselves, for they cannot return 
safe and sound. 

564. Young, the Call to. A 

speaker in Sunday-school work was 
offering his audience many helpful 
suggestions, intended to put them in 
touch with their scholars at critical 
times in their lives. At a certain 
period in his talk, he asked those in 
his audience to rise who had become 
Christians after they were sixteen. 
A goodly number rose. 

"Now will those remain standing," 
he said, "who are conscious that there 
was an earlier time in their lives 
when some tender word, a cordial 
invitation or an environment of warm 
spiritual interest would have led them 
into the Saviour's fold?" 

Only three reseated themselves. 
All the rest had come to a time of 
decision for Christ, and had drifted 
away again for some years, for the 
lack of some one near enough and 
loving enough as a Christian and a 
friend to discover it. 

The incident has a lesson and a 
heart truth for every Christian, par- 
ticularly for those in intimate touch 
with the young. 

565. Zeal, More Needed. "Give 

me only fire enough,'] said Bernard 
Palissy, the great inventor, "and 
these colors will become part and 
parcel of this china." "He's mad!" 
cried his derisive neighbors. "He's 
mad !" "More fire !" shouted the de- 
termined man. "More fire!" And 



124 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

whal Palissy said was at length Spirit's utterance, which shall cause 

proved true. "More fire" is the need us to witness with boldness. — Chris- 

of believers in Christ. We need the tian Age. 

fire of God's Word to burn up all 

the dross in our hearts; the fire of 5^^*. Zeal, or Boiling Point 

Christ's refining grace to make us Christians. See Lukewarmness, Not 

like himself; and the fire of the Sufficient. 



Ill 

TWO HUNDRED EVANGELISTIC OUTLINES AND 

SKETCHES 

The compiler's purpose is definitely practical. The strain of a 
season of revival services makes a large drain on a minister's re- 
sources. These outlines and sketches are intended to lessen that 
strain. They are intended only to be suggestive. But when these 
thoughts and sermon methods, with their infinite stores of sugges- 
tion, have passed into the crucible of the mind, revival preaching, if 
baptized by prayer and quickened by study, should become com- 
paratively easy and most effective. 

There are valuable suggestions here also for the regular work of 
an evangelical ministry. 



Signs of a Revival 

"And give us a little reviving in 
our bondage." Ezra 9:8. 

I. A fresh quickening of his own 
people. 

II. A revived spirit of prayer. 

III. An increased love of precious 
souls. 

IV. Effort made answering to this 
love. 

V. An enlarged expectation of 
blessing. 

What Time Is It? 

"It is time to seek the Lord." 
Hos. 10:12. 

I. It is time to seek the Lord. A 
call to the sinner. 

II. It is high time to awake out 
of sleep. Rom. 13:11. A warning 
to the saint. 

III. It is time for thee. Lord, to 
work. Ps. 119:126. A prayer to 
the Lord. 

Time was is past, thou canst not it 
recall ; 

Time is thou hast: employ the por- 
tion small; 

Time future is not, and may never 
be; 

Time present is the only time for 
thee. 

—Rev. Charles Edwards. 

Church Prosperity 

"O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now 
prosperity." Ps. 118:25. 



125 



I. God is the source of church 
prosperity. 

II. God is the source of church 
prosperity through prayer. 

III. In what does church prosper- 
ity consist? 

(1) An earnest membership. 

(2) A learning membership. 

(3) A membership that conscien-i 
tiously uses the means of grace. 

(4) A working membership — ^all at 
it and always at it. 

(5) A membership possessing mis- 
sionary spirit. 

(6) A membership that heartily 
supports the institutions of religion 
at home. 

(7) A membership that walks in 
separation from the world. 

Acquaintance With God 

"Acquaint now thyself with him, 
and be at peace; thereby good shall 
come unto thee." Job 22:21. 

I. The nature of acquaintance with 
God. 

"Acquaintance" implies not mere 
personal knowledge, but that intimacy 
and familiarity which subsists be- 
tween one friend and another. Ps. 
55:15; 101:4. 

II. The means of acquaintance 
with God. Enlightenment by the 
Spirit. Faith in the sacrifice of 
Christ. Believing prayer. Constant 
supplications to God through Christ 
will produce real and precious in- 
timacy with him. The constant cher- 



126 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



ishing of the Spirit's influences. The 
study of God in his word, in his 
house, etc. By frequent intercourse 
with Christians. 

III. The season for commencing 
acquaintance with God. "Now." 

The present time is the best. The 
present time is claimed by God him- 
self. "To-day, if ye will hear his 
voice," etc. It is the only time of 
which you are certain. 

IV. The happy results of acquain- 
tance with God. 

(1) Peace. God is the God of 
peace, and all his people enjoy it. 

(2) Good. Temporal good. Pro- 
vidential goodness. Spiritual good. 
The gifts and graces of the Spirit. 
Divine support in every trial, etc. 
Heavenly good. Eternal good. 

Care for Souls 

"No man careth for my soul." Ps. 
142:4. 

I. What it is to care for the souls 
of others. 

(1) To have a firm conviction of 
the value of their souls. 

(2) To feel apprehension of the 
danger to which their souls are ex- 
posed. 

(3) To cherish tender solicitude 
for the welfare of their souls. 

(4) To make zealous exertion to 
bring them to the Saviour. 

II. Who are they who ought to 
care for the souls of others? 

(1) The ministers of the Gospel. 

(2) The members of the Church. 

(3) Heads of families. 

(4) Sabbath-school teachers. 

III. What are the evils of not 
caring for the souls of others? 

(1) How cruel! 

(2) How ungrateful ! 

(3) How criminal! 

(4) How fatal! 

Love in Search of a Soul 

"The Son of Man is come to seek 
and to save that which was lost." 
Luke 19:10. ^ 

I. Sidney Lanier says, "Music is 
Love in search of a word." The 
Gospel is infinite love in search of 
all lost souls. This is the philosophy 
of the Incarnation. It takes nothing 
from the force of the Christian doc- 
trine of the Incarnation that other 
religions have believed in incarna- 
tion. It rather adds to it. It re- 
veals a primary conviction of the 
human mind that there is no other 



way for God to save man but to come 
to him as man. 

II. This is the meaning of the 
Manger at Bethlehem, of the Judean 
and Galilean ministry, of the Pas- 
sion and Death, of the Resurrection 
and Ascension ; this is the meaning 
of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, 
this is the meaning of the Christian 
Sabbath and the Christian Church 
and the Christian Scriptures ; these 
can have but one meaning, and that 
is, God is seeking man. 

III. It is a great thought, that of 
man seeking, ever seeking God; seek- 
ing him in prayers and penances and 
pilgrimages. Man can climb no 
higher than he climbs as a seeker 
after God, This is man at his best. 
Socrates, Plato, Epictetus are at their 
best when they are seeking after 
God. 

IV. But there is a greater concep- 
tion — that of God seeking man; 
seeking him by revelations and in- 
spirations: by admonitions and in- 
vitations ; seeking him supremely by 
the Incarnation. What is the ex- 
planation of it? This: God is love, 
and love is not content until all the 
lost are saved. — Rev. Charles C. Al- 

BERTSON, D.D. 

Giving the Heart 

"My son, give me thine heart." 
Prov. 23 : 26. 

I. What is implied in the giving 
of the heart to God? 

(1) That it is given sincerely. 

(2) That it is given entirely. 

(3) That it is given freely. 

(4) That it is given for ever. 

II. Why the heart should be given 
to God. 

(1) He is worthy of it. 

(2) He has a title to it. 

(3) He demands it. 

(4) He will bless it. 

The Way to Heaven 

"And an highway shall be there, 
and a way, and it shall be called. The 
way of holiness ; the unclean shall 
not pass over it; but it shall be for 
those; the wayfaring men, though 
fools, shall not err therein. No Hon 
shall be there, nor any ravenous beast 
shall go up thereon, it shall not be 
found there; but the redeemed shall 
walk there. And the ransomed of 
the Lord shall return, and come to 
the Zion with songs, and everlasting 
joy upon their heads; they shall ob- 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 127 



tain joy and gladness, and sorrow 
and sighing shall flee away." Isa. 
35 : 8-10. 

(1) The way to heaven is a high- 
way. 

(2) The way to heaven is a holy 
way. 

(3) The way to heaven is a plain 
way. . 

(4) The way to heaven is a safe 
way. 

(5) The way to heaven is a happy 
way. 

God*s Invitation to Test 
"Prove me now." Mai. 3:10. 

(1) With regard to the pardon of 
our sin for Christ's sake. 

(2) With regard to the purifying 
influence of the Gospel. 

(3) With regard to our guidance 
in the investigation of religious 
truth. 

(4) With regard to the supply of 
our temporal wants. 

(5) With regard to the happiness 
of personal religion. 

(6) With regard to answers to 
prayer. 

/ Summoned to Service: Opening 
Revival Services 

"Come now, therefore, and I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh. . . . Who 
am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? 
Certainly I will be with thee." 
Exodus 3 : 10-12. 

God's summons to serve, Moses* 
sense of insufficiency, his unrecog- 
nized sufficiency, these are the three 
prominent thoughts presented in the 
verses we have chosen for study. 
Let us take them up in their order, 
as mentioned. 

I. God's summons to serve. 

The years of Moses' life are di- 
vided in a remarkable way into three 
forties. The first forty he spent as 
a prince in Pharaoh's court, the sec- 
ond as shepherd in Midian, the third 
as a king of Jeshurun. He had just 
finished the second forty and now 
at the burning bush receives a sud- 
den summons. It was nothing less 
than a commission to bring Israel 
out of Egypt. The sight of the bush 
that burned and was not consumed 
was an astonishment to him, but it 
was not half so astonishing as was 
the summons that came to him there : 
"Come now, therefore, and I will 
send thee into Pharaoh," Was this 
lone man who had fled and was now 



hiding from Pharaoh's wrath to go 
stand in his dread presence? And 
was he to be there not to make meek 
submission to him, but to make an 
audacious and most unpalatable de- 
mand sure to incense him to the 
highest degree? Was this solitary 
shepherd to dream of such a thing 
as performing the stupendous task 
of taking Israel out of the mighty 
Pharaoh's grasp and transfer them 
into a distant land of peace and 
plenty? Yes, it was this and noth- 
ing less than this to which God was 
summoning him. 

Though God does not call us to 
such high tasks as that to which 
Moses was called, yet he does sum- 
mon and send us forth to noble 
service. There are souls that need 
deliverance to-day, as did Israel in 
that day. God tells us to go to them 
and lead them forth into the light 
and blessings of his gospel. Ho 
summons us to bear witness for him 
before an ungodly world. He com- 
missions us to teach his truth, to 
lift up the fallen, cheer the despond- 
ent, feed the hungry, comfort the 
sorrowing, save the sinning. In- 
deed, he may speak to us in a far 
more definite way, telling us exactly 
what to do. "There is that home 
where a sick one waits for your 
coming. There is a poor widow you 
must help. Go teach in that Sunday- 
school. Go preach in that foreign 
field. Go down into that dark place 
of your city and set up a lighthouse 
of gospel truth. Extend a helping 
hand to that young man in your 
employ. See that that girl gets an 
education. Rescue that child from 
that den of degradation." God's 
summons to serve comes to every 
one of us. 

II. Moses' sense of insufficiency. 
"Who am I," said Moses, "that I 
should go unto Pharaoh ?" "Who am 
I?" each one of us is too liable to 
say. "Who am I, that I should take 
upon me the name of Christ or 
undertake things so high and noble 
in his service?" Though this is a 
very natural feeling it is one we 
should guard carefully against when 
God summons us into his service. 

A young man was asked to become 
a Christian. He said he would gladly 
do so, but he was afraid he would 
fail and bring dishonor upon Christ. 
But his hesitation was wrong. The 
call that came to him was God's call 



128 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



and he had no right to hold back 
from duty because he felt insuffi- 
cient. 

A young woman was invited to 
take a class of boys in Sunday-school. 
She declined fearing she should fail. 
There was nothing wrong in her 
timidity, but there was much wrong 
when she let her timidity, her sense 
of insufficiency, prevent her taking 
up the work she was providentially 
called to do. 

III. For, notice, in the third place, 
Moses' unrecognized sufficiency. 
Moses proved to be perfectly fitted 
to accomplish the task for which he 
thought himself so unequal. He had 
in himself capacities of which he 
was then ignorant, and he had in 
God a divine resource on which he 
did not for the moment reckon. 
"Certainly I will be with thee." 
Say, "I AM hath sent me." 

God does not make mistakes in 
calling persons to do work for him. 
He knows their talents, even if at the 
time they are latent. He always 
calls men and women who are pre- 
pared for the task. Moses was pre- 
pared for his. But it is not often 
the case that the worker recognizes 
his own preparation. He always 
says, "Who is sufficient for these 
things?" But God's promise is al- 
ways, "My grace is sufficient for 
thee."— H. 

/ How to Succeed in Revivals: Open- 
"^ ing the Services 

"Now Jericho was straitly shut 
up," etc. Joshua 6 : 1-5. 

While Joshua was inspecting the 
fortifications of Jericho, perhaps 
musing on the plan of attack, the 
Captain of the Lord of Hosts ap- 
peared unto him with, "his sword 
drawn in his hand," ready for action, 
and said, "Shout, for the Lord hath 
given you the city." The Lord 
Jehovah planned the campaign. He 
told Joshua hov/ to go about the 
work so as to ensure success. 

I. There must be thoroughness — 
"Ye shall compass the city round 
about." H they would succeed in 
their Revival Mission, they must 
make the best possible arrangements 
as to time and place, surroundings, 
assistants, and sermons. God will 
not put a premium on idleness. 

H. Unanimity required — they 
should "all" compass the city — men 
and women, young and old, officers 



as well as rank and file; all must 
come to the help of the Lord. Where 
there is such unanimity in a church 
in promoting the work of God suc- 
cess is assured. 

HL Perseverance is essential — 
"Ye shall compass the city six days." 
H they had not as much success as 
they expected at the commencement 
of a revival campaign, let them not 
be discouraged. For six days the 
hosts of Israel compassed the city, 
and nothing whatever seemed to be 
accomplished. 

IV. PublicHy is absolutely needed 
— the priests were to "blow with the 
trumpets." Before you enter on such 
a mission be sure to blow the trum- 
pets. Announce ! Announce ! Scat- 
ter hand-bills; post placards; blow 
the trumpets through the press; ad- 
vertise largely; let the public know 
what you are about to do; give them 
a chance. 

V. Self-sacrifice is demanded. 
"Ye shall compass the city seven 
times." Let business men make sacri- 
fices, and give a portion of their 
time and money to this service of 
the Lord. Christ sacrificed himself 
for us, and they should make sacri- 
fices to promote his cause. So should 
all. 

VI. Absolute dependence on God 
alone for success is an indispensable 
and constant necessity. Not in 
Joshua; not in the armies of Israel; 
not in plans and arrangements; not 
in the preacher and his helpers must 
you put your trust. The "ark of the 
Lord" should go before them. The 
ark was the symbol of the Divine 
presence. Nothing can be accom- 
plished but by the power of God. 
With God nothing is impossible. 
Before him obstacles as great as the 
frowning battlements of Jericho will 
fall down flat before you. 

VII. Confident expectation must 
be in constant exercise. "Shout" — 
shout before the city is taken in the 
fullest belief that Jehovah will ful- 
fil his promise. Shout before the 
triumph as if it had already taken 
place. Thank God not only for what 
he has done, but also for what he 
has promised to do, and what he is 
about to do. Shout not only for what 
has been done, but for what he is 
going to do. "Shout," for the Lord 
hath given you the city. 

VIII. Action is inseparably con- 
nected with living faith. They gave 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 129 



the "great shout" — the shout arising 
from faith in God. "By faith the 
walls of Jericho fell down, after they 
were compassed about seven days." — 
Rev. H. p. H. 

Impossible 

I. For men to enter heaven unless 
born again. John 3 : 5-7. 

II. For men to be saved without 
shedding of blood. Heb. 9 : 22. 

III. To be saved without personal 
faith. Mark 16 : 16. 

IV. To believe and not be saved. 
Acts 16:31. 

V. To be saved after* this life. 
Luke 16:26. 

VI. For those who neglect, to 
escape. Heb. 2 : 3. 

VII. For God to lie. Heb. 6: 18. 

— James Sprunt. 

How to Have An Ingathering of 
Souls: Beginning Revival Work 

"If my people shall humble them- 
selves, and pray, then will I hear 
from heaven," etc. 2 Chron. 7:14- 
16. 

I. Let us ask for it. If we wish 
the blessing it is as little as we can 
do to ask for it. "Ask and ye 
shall receive." Before we can have 
an ingathering of souls our churches 
and people must be aroused to an 
earnest spirit of prayer and suppli- 
cation. Doubtless we might exper- 
ience another pentecostal blessing in 
answer to another pentecostal season 
of earnest prayer. Prayer is God's 
appointed means for obtaining. 
Prayer is the channel through which 
our blessings come. Oftentimes our 
churches are like some inland city in 
the winter on the banks of a frozen 
stream. We are the dwellers in that 
city, hungering and starving for 
food. Scores of richly laden vessels 
are lying in the stream a few miles 
below anxiously waiting to reach our 
wharves. But why the delay? It is 
because ne channel is closed by the 
ice. bo' it is often in regard to God's 
blessings for his Church. He is not 
only willing but waiting to bestow 
them upon us. Why then do they 
not come? The reason is plain. 
Our prayers are the channel, the ap- 
pointed channel, through which every 
good must come ; but the channel is 
not open. Oh, how often do our 
churches fail to keep the channel 
clear. How often are we in want 
and miss the blessing because the 



stream is frozen and God does not 
come through the ice ! 

II. Let us expect it. This means 
faith. Faith is the hand that takes 
the blessing. One reason we do not 
receive more is because we do not 
expect more. Think what poor feeble 
faith we have ! How often we are 
like those Christians praying for 
Peter, Recall the scene. The disci- 
ples were gathered together praying 
for Peter's release from prison. 
While they were praying he knocked 
at the door. But they would not be- 
lieve it was Peter. He continued 
knocking. When they opened the 
door and saw that it was indeed he, 
they were astonished. Think of it ! 
The Church praying— God answering 
— and the people "astonished'' ! But 
how often it is so still ! Think of 
our poor weak faith. Often it is 
that Christ, consistently with his own 
character, really cannot do many 
mighty works in our churches be- 
cause of our unbelief. Instead, we 
ought to ask great things and expect 
great things from his hand. He 
says, "According to your faith be it 
unto you." It is as if one very rich 
were to hand us a blank check with 
his name signed and say: "Now, fill 
it out yourself, write in the amount 
you would draw, and according to 
your faith in me be it unto you." 
We might hesitate to make too large 
a draft upon an earthly friend, but 
there is no need to draw lightly upon 
God, 

"For his grace and power are such, 
None can ever ask too much." 
God is far more willing to bless us 
than we think he is. If we really 
wish an ingathering of souls in our 
churches, let us ask for it and ex- 
pect it and get our people to expect- 
ing it, God will honor our prayers 
and our faith. 

III. Let us work for it. Living 
faith is a practical faith and goes to 
work. "Faith without works is 
dead." But a living faith is a work- 
ing faith. It believes there is a 
human side as well as a Divine side 
in God's plan for the accomplishment 
of his will. Faith never prays, "Lord, 
put grain into my barn." Faith 
ploughs and sows and prays : "Lord, 
bless effort." So when we have a 
part given us to do that is useless 
prayer which does not try to answer 
itself as far as possible. True faith 
is practical, and practicable faith 



I30 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



unites prayer and effort. Do you 
want to see Christians grow in grace, 
sinners saved and the gospel of 
Christ prevail as never before? 
Then pray. Then expect the bless- 
ing. Do not contradict your faith 
by not expecting the blessing. God 
never said : Ask to see whether I 
will give. He does say, "Ask and 
ye shall receive." If we use the 
means and do our duty it is sure as 
God is God and his word is truth 
that we shall never be disappointed. 
"If thou canst believe all things are 
possible to him that believeth." — H. 

A Call to Heroism: Opening Re- 
vival Services 

"Go stand and speak in the temple 
to the people all the words of this 
life." Acts 5:20. 

The apostles of Christ are in the 
midst of persecution. An attempt is 
made to silence their preaching and 
stay the aggressive power of the Gos- 
pel. They are cast into prison. But 
an angel opens the doors and bids 
the messengers of the truth continue 
their work. "Go, stand and speak 
in the temple to the people all the 
words of this life." 

In the word "stand," of this mes- 
sage, is an implied summons to Chris- 
tian boldness. In the words "speak 
in the temple," is a call to heroic 
action. They were called to stand at 
the post of duty, at the very spot 
where they had been arrested, at the 
very center of opposition. They were 
to speak to the people "all the words 
of this life." "Life" here means not 
the present life, nor the future life, 
but the spiritual life, the Christian 
life, the new life in Christ, which 
was the theme of the apostolic 
preaching. 

They obeyed. "They entered into 
the temple early in the morning." 
They went as soon as released, being 
back in the temple by daybreak, in 
time for the morning sacrifice at sun- 
rise. There they stood, and bore wit- 
ness for Christ, moved by the con- 
sciousness that they ought to obey 
God rather than men. 

There is a call to heroism in our 
day. In this message and the exam- 
ple of the apostles we hear it: 
"Stand !" "Stand !" 

I. "Stand" in the Place of Danger. 
The apostles had been arrested in 
Solomon's porch. The exclamation of 
their enemies was: "Behold, the men 



whom ye put in prison are standing 
in the temple." They were back 
again in the same place. No wonder 
the daring of men who would go 
straight back to the place of their 
apprehension compelled astonishment. 
But ready for such heroic conduct 
should be every Christian. On the 
mission fields, in many lines of effort 
to save men, there is danger — some- 
times to life, but more often to our 
peace and tranquillity; yet we should 
stand. Like the pilot of the burning 
ship guiding her to the beach; like 
he engineer who instead of jumping 
stuck to his engine and forced it 
safely through an obstruction; so 
should we heroically stand in the 
place of danger when called to it by 
the voice of duty. 

II. "Stand" in the Place of Obe- 
dience. 

(1) The obedience of these men 
of God was literal. The angel said, 
"Go, stand," and they were found 
"standing." He said, "Speak to the 
people," and they were found "teach- 
ing the people." 

(2) Their obedience was very 
prompt. The command was, "Speak 
in the temple." "And when they 
heard that, they entered into the 
temple early in the morning." No 
delay. 

(3) Their obedience was continu- 
ous. This we learn from the 42nd 
verse of this chapter: "And daily in 
the temple, and in every house, they 
ceased not to teach and preach Jesus 
Christ." 

A man asking for work was bidden 
to take a rope and pail, draw water 
from a well and pour it into a sieve. 
The work seemed highest folly. But 
he continued hour after hour the long 
day through. As evening approached, 
he found the well nearly dry; then 
he happened to notice a bright, spark- 
ling light at the bottom. It proved to 
be a ring set with a brilliant gem 
which had been dropped intofthe well. 
He had not understood before ; but 
having been instant and faithful in 
obedience he now saw the reason for 
the work he had been given to do. 
God will choose those to be co- 
workers with him who will do just 
what they are told, literally, promptly, 
continuously. 

III. "Stand" in the Place of Op- 
portunity. 

The place where God bids us to go 
as the place of opportunity. The 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 131 



apostles found people in the temple. 
There they had hearers. To these 
hearers they carried a message, bore 
a testimony. Another chance to 
preach to the people and another 
chance to reach the ears of the coun- 
cil was their reward. In the place 
of opportunity let us not fear or 
fail to stand. 

IV. "Stand" in the Place of Privi- 
lege. 

The place of danger and of obe- 
dience and of opportunity was the 
place of privilege. It gave them the 
privilege of serving God and of 
bringing about results in his King- 
dom. Duty ever enlarges into privi- 
lege. The duty of sowing the seed 
of the Gospel widens out into the 
privilege of harvesting souls. The 
duty of standing obediently, becomes 
the privilege of conscious communion 
with God. The duty of doing hard 
things or dangerous things for 
Christ's sake brings the privilege of 
by-and-by hearing his, "Well done, 
good and faithful servant, enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord." 

Let us live lives that are heroic in 
faithfulness. Let us "stand" for 
God. Let us do it wherever the 
place he puts us to-day. — H. 

Faith Rewarded: Beginning Re- 
vival Work 

"When Jesus saw their faith, he 
said unto the sick of the palsy. Son, 
thy sins be forgiven thee." Mark 
2:5. 

Christ had been at Capernauni be- 
fore. After he had gone they missed 
him. Then they began to appreciate 
who he was, his wisdom, his power, 
and the wonder of his works. But 
now "again he entered into Caper- 
naum after some days." 

I. We notice, first, that great mul- 
titudes gathered about Christ. He 
entered into a house and began to 
speak, but the place could not contain 
the people. "There was no room to 
receive them, no, not so much as 
about the door." There was not even 
standing room. But what was it 
that so attracted the crowd? It was 
the fact that Christ was in that house 
healing the sick. That drew the 
crowds ; and do you not know that 
the surest way to secure an audience 
is to have it known that Christ is in 
a house healing and saving sinners? 
People gather where Christ is. It 
is not so much a question of the 



kind of preaching as it is whether or 
not Christ is present. "Unto him 
shall the gathering of the people 
be." 

II. To this crowd Christ "preached 
the word," and the preaching got the 
people to do something. They began 
to think of that paralytic. They said, 
"There is that poor sick man, he 
ought to be here that Christ might 
heal him; let us go and bring him." 
So do we know that is the best 
preaching which incites people to 
work and bring others into the pres- 
ence of Christ — those who do not 
know him — that poor, sin palsied 
man, that unsaved neighbor, those 
children outside of the Chur-ch 
and Sunday-school, and even dear- 
est friends who need his healing 
power. 

III. The useful work to which the 
people were incited was that of try- 
ing to save someone. The purpose 
of bringing that paralytic to Christ 
was that he might be healed. They 
wanted to save that man ; and what 
is needed to-day is such a longing in 
the hearts of God's people as will 
lead them to try to save the perish- 
ing. Let us get the idea of trying 
to save some one. Horace Mann, 
after visiting a reformatory, noting 
its costly buildings and expensive 
corps of teachers, said: "If all this 
results in saving only a boy, it were 
worth all the expense and labor." A 
cautious, calculating man who heard 
the remark, thought him extravagant 
and said, "Do you not go a little too 
far when you say that the reformation 
of one boy would be sufficient com- 
pensation for all this immense out- 
lay?" "Not if it were my boy," was 
the quick reply. Are the dying souls 
about you nothing to you? Some are 
your boys. Some are your friends. 
All are your brother-men. 

IV. This scriptural incident sug- 
gests that some people will not come 
to Christ unless they are helped to do 
so. This man, sick of the palsy, 
would probably never have found 
Christ had he not received the as- 
sistance of his friends. Mr. Moody 
says he doubts if anyone was ever 
saved without the co-operation of 
human agents. Carry your friends 
to Christ. Mothers, fathers, friends, 
the Saviour is come within reach. 
Take up those whom you love and 
carry them to him. 

V. Christ especially commended 



132 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



the faith of the friends. ''When 
Jesus saw their faith." The four 
friends of the paralytic took him up 
and carried him to Christ. We can- 
not accept Christ for a friend, but we 
can carry our friend to Christ. It 
is when he sees our faith that he 
gives the answer. 

VI. In saving souls do not let cere- 
mony or departure from accustomed 
ways of doing things deter you. A 
door is the most proper way by 
which to enter a house. To enter 
through a window would not seem 
becoming; but certainly to go down 
through the roof is contrary to all 
our ideas of decorum. But the only 
idea of these men was to get the 
sick man to Christ, They did not 
hesitate in regard to methods. We 
are in danger of being too much 
afraid of departing from accustomed 
ways of doing religious work. The 
"anxious seat," the "mourner's 
bench," the "rising for prayer," may 
not seem proper, but they have been 
abundantly blessed of God. 

VII. Do not despair of the con- 
version of even the most hardened 
sinner. Palsy was regarded an in- 
curable disease. Some would say 
that this was an absolutely hopeless 
case; but there are no hopeless cases 
from the standpoint of Christ. Let 
us believe ; let us have faith in him ; 
let us do the work that falls to us 
faithfully, and know that Christ will 
exercise his power in healing even 
the most hardened. Faith will al- 
ways be rewarded. Christ always 
honors it. — H. 

Duty of Co-operation: Beginning 
Revival Work 

"From whom the whole body fitly 
joined together and compacted by 
that which every joint supplieth," etc. 
Eph. 4:16. 

Paul here uses the idea of the 
growth of the human body to illus- 
trate growth of the Church. He says 
that the Church makes increase of 
itself only "according to the effectual 
working in the measure of every 
part." 

I. Each part must do its share. 
In the body there are nerves, bones, 
blood-vessels and other parts innu- 
merable, and each of these has a spe- 
cial function ; so has God given to 
every member of his Church some 
special functions with special work 
to do. The whole body is "fitly 



joined together" — no part is expected 
to do the work of any other part. 
No part can do the work of any 
other part. 

II. But in this figure of the body's 
growth and functions there is still 
another thought — that each part must 
work in conjunction with all the rest. 

It is not enough that each part 
should do some work, but it must be 
co-operative work. The whole body 
is "fitly joined and compacted" in 
order that it may be suitably in- 
creased by that which "every joint 
supplieth;" the whole growing by 
every part growing. This rule, ap- 
plied in the individual Church, would 
mean that while it might have one 
or more pastors it would have just 
as many workers as there are mem- 
bers. The minister with a church 
of one hundred members, would have 
just one hundred devoted helpers, or, 
of five hundred members, five hun- 
dred helpers; all together working 
"in the measure of every part, making 
increase of the body unto the edify- 
ing of itself in love." JSTo pastor 
can do his people's work. No Chris- 
tian's life can be lived by proxy. If 
your work is done by some one else, 
your work is not done at all. You 
may be small, but no one else can 
fill your place. "All at it, always at 
it," is the rule. 

III. There is work for all and all 
can work. Take for suggestiveness 
the building of the temple at Jerusa- 
lem. The plan of the building was 
given by God himself, and was com- 
mitted to masterbuilders of his own 
choosing. Their business was to see 
how every stone was laid, and that all 
the vast multitude employed did their 
work faithfully. But all the people 
were enlisted in the work. Some 
were cleaning off and leveling the 
Ifoundation; others were on the 
mountain-sides quarrying the rocks; 
others were squaring them to the size 
directed; others were engaged in 
hauling them to the building; others 
were raising them to the appointed 
place ; others making mortar and car- 
rying it to the builders; while even 
the women and children were doubt- 
less engaged in combing the wool and 
camel's hair and making the cur- 
tains and fringes. The whole church 
was at work — co-operative work — all 
energies directed to the one great 
end. The result was the most mag- 
nificent building the world has ever 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 133 



seen. That was practical lay co- 
operation, and what the Church of 
Christ needs to-day is more of it. It 
is only as every man finds his work 
and strives to do it that the Church 
will leap forward with sudden, 
mighty and victorious strides toward 
her day of glory. 

Now, the grand triumph of the 
kingdom is coming, we may be sure 
of that; but it is to be hastened only 
as all God's people arouse to do 
their part. Not simply as the watch- 
men on the walls of Zion do their 
duty, but as the multitudes of the 
saved go out after the multitudes 
who are not saved. What is needed 
is more of that life-giving, vitalizing 
fire of God's Holy Spirit which will 
arouse every individual Christian to 
earnest, consecrated, soul-winning 
work. "Every church a band of mis- 
sionaries" is the title we have seen 
of a tract. We have never read the 
tract, but the title is very suggestive. 
A good deal has been said of late 
about the importance of having "able 
ministers" in our pulpits, and no 
doubt it is important. But might it 
not be well to call the attention of 
the members of our churches to the 
fact that it is more important that 
they should be able workers than 
that they should have able pastors; 
especially such as fill that popular 
idea of men usually gifted as public 
speakers and sermonizers? Only as 
our churches become bands of mis- 
sionaries — only as they become bands 
of "able workers," in fact only as 
the rank and file of Christians are 
enlisted in active service for Christ, 
will his kingdom advance as it 
ought. — H. 

The Blood 

I. Peace has been made through 
the blood. Col. 1 : 20. 

II. Justified by the blood. Rom. 
5:9. 

III. Redemption by the blood. 
Eph. 1:7. 

IV. This redemption is eternal. 
Heb. 9:11-14; Heb. 10:10-15. 

V. Cleansed by the blood. 1 John 
1:7; Rev. 1:5; Rev. 7:14. 

VI. We enter into the holiest by 
the blood. Heb. 10:19. 

VII. Overcome in heaven by the 
blood. Rev. 12:11. 

VIII. Then sing the song forever 
to the blood of the lamb. Rev. 5 : 9. 

—Rev. J. R. Dean. 



The New Testament Salvation 

I. What it is— 

(1) Love of God revealed to men. 
John 3 : 16. 

(2) Son-ship for those who receive 
him. John 1 : 12. 

II. What it leads to— 

(1) Confession that Jesus is the 
Christ. Matt. 16 : 16 ; 1 John 4:2; 
5:1. 

(2) Opposition. John 9:22; 12: 
42, 43. 

III. What it involves — 

(1) Life-long service. Rev. 2:10. 
Eph. 6, for parents 4 ; children 1 ; 

husbands 25-28; wives 22; masters 
(employers) 9; servants (employes) 
5; and Christians Eph. 5: 15-17; 
workers Matt. 11:29, 30; 27:19, 
20. 

(2) The Purifying of life. 1 John 
3:3. 

IV. What are the results — 

(1) Lead us into his likeness. 
Eph. 4:15; Ps. 17:15. 

(2) Everlasting life. Heb. 5:9. 

Frank D. Stanley. 

In Name of Jesus 

I. Salvation in the name. Acts 
4:12. 

II. Prayer in the name. Jno. 14: 
13, 14; Jno. 16:23, 24. 

III. Gathered in the name. Matt. 
18:20. 

IV. Do all in the name. 1 Cor. 
10:3. 

V. Service in the name. Acts 4: 
17, 18. 

VI. Suffering in the name. Acts 
5:4L 

VII. Discipline in the name. 1 Cor. 
5:4,5. 

VIII. Exalting in the name. Phil. 
2:9-11. 

—Rev. H. P. Welton, D.D. 

Jesus Is Able 

Having been given "all power," 
Matt. 28 : 18, and having destroyed 
the works of the devil, 1 John, 3 : 8, 
Jesus is able to, 

I. Save to the uttermost. Heb. 
7:25. 

II. Make all grace abound. 2 Cor. 
9:8. 

III. Succor the tempted. Heb. 
2:18. 

IV. Make us stand. Rom. 14 : 4. 

V. Keep us from falling. Jude 24. 
VL Subdue all things. Phil. 3 : 21. 
VII. Keep that committed to him. 

2 Tim. 1 : 12. 



134 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



VIII. Perform what he has prom- 
ised. Rom. 4:21. 

IX. Do above all we ask or think. 
Eph. 3 : 20. 

Knowing his grace and power, shall 
we not come and say, "Yea, Lord"? 
Matt. 9:28. 

— F. S. Shepard. 

Brazen Serpent 
Numbers 21 : 4-9 ; John 3 : 14. 

I. Discouragement is always from 
the devil. V. 4. 

II. The path of murmuring is full 
of stings. V. 5. 

III. We "speak against God" when 
we complain of our lot. V. 5. 

IV. Each new sin brings a new 
penalty. V. 6. 

V. We are reminded of our sin 
through our suffering. V. 7. 

VI. Heartfelt confession is a sign 
of wholesome recovery. V. 7. 

VII. Looking is believing. V. 8. 

VIII. Look and live — look or die. 
V. 8. 

IX. Look not upon faith or feeling 
but look at Christ. V. 9. 

Salvation by Faith 

Acts 16:25-34; Believe in him— 
Shall be saved. 

John 3: 16, 18, 36; Psa. 9:17; 
John 1 : 12 ; Received him. 

John 5:24; My word-nHath— 
Shall not — Is. 

John 6:47; He that beHeveth— 
Hath. 

John 6 : 40 ; His will— Everlasting 
—I will. 

Acts 13: 38, 39; By him— Justified. 

Not by Works 

John 6:25-29; This is the work- 
Believe. 

Rom. 3: 19-26; By deeds— Not jus- 
tified. 

1. God of the Father (2:13) of 
the Son. 

Rom. 3:28; By faith— Without 
deeds. 

Rom. 4:5; Worketh not— But be- 
Heveth. 

Rom. 5:1; Faith — Peace with God. 
Rom. 15 : 13 ; Isa. 26 : 3 ; Eph. 2 : 8, 9; 
By grace — Gift. 

Not of works. Gal. 2: 16, 21. 

God demands faith. Acts 17:20, 
31; 1 John 3:23. 

How Are We Justified 

I. By Grace. Rom. 3:24. 

II. By the Blood of Christ. Rom. 
5:9. 



III. By the resurrection of Christ. 
Rom. 4:25. 

IV. By knowledge. Isa. 53:11. 

V. By faith. Rom. 5:1. 

VI. By Jesus' name and the Spirit. 
1 Cor. 6:11. 

VII. By works. Jas. 2:24. 

VIII. By the Lord. Rom. 8: 33. 

— Xan Mere. 

Christ Jesus, the Sin-Bearer 

Behold the Lamb of God. Jno. 
1:29. 

By his stripes healed. Isa. 53 : 5. 

Christ hath redeemed. Gal. 3 : 13. 

Who bare our sins. 1 Pet. 2 : 24. 

One sacrifice for sins. Heb. 10: 
12-14. 

Forgiveness of sins. Acts 13 : 38, 39. 

Purged our sins. Heb. 1 : 3. 

To take away our sins. 1 Jno. 3 : 5. 

It is finished. Jno. 19 : 30. 

—James Speunt. 

The Holy Spirit 

Personality and office of the Holy 
Spirit. 

I. Personality of the Holy Spirit 

(1) Study and mark Christ's twen- 
ty-two pronouns in speaking of him 
in John 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26; 16:7- 
14. 

(2) May be grieved — has feeling. 
Eph. 4:3. 

(3) May be blasphemed. Luke 12: 
10. 

(4) Is distinct from Father and 
Son. Luke 3:22; Matt. 28:19; 2 
Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 12:3; John 16: 
14. 

II. Office of the Holy Spirit in 
Church. 

(1) To convict of sin. John 16:8. 

(2) To impart the new birth. 
John 3 : 5, 6. 

(3) To testify to the new life. 
Rom. 8 : 16. 

(4) To refine and purify the heart. 
Acts 15 : 8, 9. 

(5) To impart the love of God. 
Rom. 5 : 1-5. 

(6) To give power in prayer. 
Rom. 8:26. 

(7) To give power to witness for 
Christ. Acts 1:8, 

(8) Transform and glorify the 
Christian hfe. 2 Cor. 3:18. Won- 
derful. — Rev. Frank A. Miller. 

Wisdom 

Worldly definition : "Pleasure," 
"fame," "culture," "wealth." God's 
judgment in. 1 Cor. 3:19. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 135 



I. True definition. Job 28:28; 
Prov. 9:10. 

II. Worth of wisdom. Job 28 : 13- 
19; Prov. 8:11. 

III. The source of wisdom. Job 
28:20-23. 

IV. Our duty, "Seek." Prov. 8: 
33-35. 

V. The New Testament idea cen- 
ters in Christ. Eph. 3:8-11. 

VI. Three prayers of Paul. Eph. 
1:15-23; Eph. 3:14-21; Col. 1:9-11. 

VII. How can we secure wis- 
dom? 

(1) Prayer. Jas. 1:5. 

(2) The Bible. 2 Tim. 3:13-17. 

(3) The Holy Spirit. Jno. 14:26. 

— Rev. H. M. Morey. 

^ Meeting Temptation: After the 
Revival 

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not 
into temptation; the spirit indeed is 
willing, but the flesh is weak." Matt. 
26:41. 

Life is full of peril. Satan is no 
superstitious myth ; but an actual 
foe, "going about like a roaring lion 
seeking whom he may devour." 
Cunning, powerful and treacherous, 
he hates God and hates the good. 
He tempted Christ. He wanted to 
"sift" Peter. And he wants to sift 
us too. Two things he especially 
tries to do with us: to draw us 
back into his service, or, failing in 
that, to make us just as inefficient as 
possible in Christian work. To make 
us inefficient he first attempts to lead 
us into sin. Yielding to sin he 
knows makes cowards of us. Our 
cowardice discourages us in the 
Christian life; and once discouraged 
we are almost no use in Christian 
work, for as Mr. Moody says, "God 
seldom uses discouraged Christians." 
But Satan's real purpose is to destroy 
us. As Jael did with Sisera, so 
Satan would first put us to sleep, and 
then kill us. 

But how are we to meet tempta- 
tion? What are some of the con- 
ditions of victory? 

I. The first condition is heart con- 
secration — the being wholly and loy- 
ally Christ's. 

It is not difficult for a bridegroom 
to be faithful to his bride if he has 
given himself wholly, loyally and 
lovingly to her. Temptation is dis- 
armed by his consecration to her and 
to her alone. So Satan may be very 
strong, but he loses his power over 



us when we are sanctified wholly to 
Christ. 

II. A second condition of victory 
we may call strategy. 

By strategy is the way some armies 
succeed in war. It is one way the 
Christian can succeed in the battle 
with Satan. Paul gives us a hint of 
what this means when he says : "Be 
not overcome of evil, but overcome 
evil with good." It is possible to have 
our hearts and hands so occupied 
with things that are good that Satan 
can find no place in us. 

We once saw Mr. Moody at a 
meeting pick up a glass and, holding 
it before the audience, ask, "How 
can I get the air out of this glass?" 
There was no response. Reaching 
for a pitcher of water he poured the 
glass full to overflowing. He then 
said that every particle of air had 
been emptied from the glass. Just so 
can we keep Satan and the world 
and worldly things out of our hearts. 
It is by filling them with the things 
of Christ and of the Spirit. This is 
wise strategy. It is dispossession by 
preoccupation. It is a most success- 
ful way of overcoming Satan and 
his wiles. 

III. Let us avoid temptations not 
in the path of duty. 

We pray, "Lead us not into temp- 
tation, but deliver us from evil." 
Let us not expose ourselves to un- 
necessary temptations. 

We know a man who professed 
conversion. His besetting sin had 
been drunkenness. But upon claim- 
ing to be converted he said he would 
prove its genuineness by going to 
the city, passing by all the saloons 
and coming home as sober as he 
went. It can be no surprise to any- 
one to know that, having gone in 
that spirit, he came home as drunk as 
ever. He met needless temptation, 
and not in the way of his duty. Pray 
the Lord to keep you from pre- 
sumptuous sins, and carefully avoid 
all temptations not in the way of 
duty. 

IV. But temptations will come: 
What then? 

(1) Watch. Keep the citadel. 
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, 
for out of it are the issues of life." 
Watch every avenue by which the 
enemy makes his approach. 

(2) Pray. Pray for a way of es- 
cape if God will vouchsafe that to 
you. If he cannot grant you that. 



136 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



pray for help and strength to resist 
and overcome in open, face-to-face 
battle with the powers of darkness. 
Offer unwavering resistance. Men 
and devils may tempt, but men and 
devils cannot force us to yield. 
Luther used to say: "We cannot 
keep the birds from flying over our 
heads, but we can prevent them from 
building their nests in our hair." So 
we cannot prevent temptations from 
whispering in our ears, but we can 
prevent them from making their 
nests in our hearts. No one can com- 
pel us to sin; and it is possible to 
come out of the fiercest struggle with 
evil with clean hands and untarnished 
spirit and a conscience void of of- 
fence toward God and men. ''Blessed 
is the man that endureth temptation, 
for when he is tried he shall receive 
the crown of life, which the Lord 
hath promised to them that love 
him."— H. 

Growth in Grace: After the Re- 
vival 

"But grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ.'; 2 Peter 3 : 18. 

A living thing ought to grow. No 
growth, no life, is the rule. If as 
Christians we do not grow then either 
we have become formalists, having 
"a. name to live but dead," having a 
"form of godliness but denying the 
power thereof," or we have gone 
back into the world and have be- 
come as bad or worse than we ever 
were. 

I. The nature of growth in grace. 

(1) It is gradual. One does not 
become perfected in Christian life 
suddenly. It is a progressive devel- 
opment. 

(2) Its foundation is knowledge. 
It is as we grow in the knowledge 
of Christ and acquaintance with him 
that we grow in likeness to him. 

(3) It ought to be constant. In 
religion we cannot depend on change- 
ful frames and excitement. But we 
ought increasingly to be "strength- 
ened by might in the inner man." 
This will come by attention to every 
means of grace, the private acts of 
devotion, the public worship of God's 
house, Christian activity, etc. 

II. Some signs of growth in grace. 
(1) The seeing of our sins. A 

growing Christian will become in- 
creasingly conscious of sin. Such an 
one is tempted sometimes to think 



that he is even growing worse every 
day. In a room full of loathsome 
things where one ray of light is ad- 
mitted, we see a few of them; when 
more light comes in we see more of 
the horrors. So if we are seeing 
more of the sinfulness of our hearts 
each day, it is a sign that increasing 
spiritual light is being admitted. 
^ (2) Increasing watchfulness against 
sin. If we find ourselves guarding 
against our besetting sins with new 
determination, watching against our 
peculiar temptations and striving to 
overcome them, it is another sign 
that we are growing in grace. 

(3) Growing self-denial of personal 
indulgence. 

(4) Growing conscientiousness. 

(5) Increasing spiritual minded- 
ness. 

(6) Bearing injuries with patience 
and meekness. 

(7) Increasing desire for the sal- 
vation of others. 

(8) Growing dependence upon 
God's promises, especially in hours 
of darkness and trials. 

(9) A desire for God's glory. 

By these signs anyone can test 
whether he is really growing in grace 
or not. 

III. How to grow in grace, or 
make progress in the Christian life. 

(1) Aim to do something to that 
end every day. The mistake we are 
liable to make is of making general 
resolutions to do good without car- 
rying them out in particular direc- 
tions. 

(2) Remember that your depend- 
ence is on the Holy Spirit ; therefore 
pray much. Make personal effort as 
if all depended upon you; at the 
same time pray as if all depended 
upon God. 

(3) Study the Bible. Take time to 
study. ^ Take time to meditate upon 
it. Sit at Jesus' feet and learn of 
him. 

(4) Practice self-denial every day. 
Be watchful against conformity to 
the world. Do not give up to your 
appetites and passions. Be not self- 
centered. 

(5) Resolve to do more, work 
more, give more, etc. There are a 
great many hindrances to growth in 
grace that we ought to guard against. 
Worldly companionship; too deep 
engrossment in business ; the giving 
of too much importance to our own 
pleasure and amusement; the walk- 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 137 



ing on the verge of dishonesty; re- 
lapse into known sin; such things 
greatly hinder the Christian's growth. 
There is danger when we step back 
of our falHng. Like the painter mak- 
ing a fresco on a building, stepping 
back to admire, he became so en- 
grossed that he forgot that he was 
high on a scaffolding. He fell to the 
bottom and was killed on the marble 
pavement below. Be careful not to 
be so interested in other things as 
to forget your obligations to God.— - 
H. 

Need and Supply: After the Re- 
vival 

"My God shall supply all your 
need, according to his riches in glory 
by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4 : 19. 

Paul and his colleagues were poor. 
The Philippian Christians had met 
some of their wants, and Paul de- 
clares his firm belief that God would 
enrich them for it out of the glorious 
treasures of his providence and grace. 
"My God," etc. This has been called 
"The Believer's Banknote." It is 
good for blessings for body and soul, 
for time and eternity. 

I. The Christian's needs. "Shall 
supply all your needs." 

This is not a promise that God will 
gratify all our wishes or whims. He 
will supply what he sees to be our 
needs. It is the same thought as the 
Psalmist had when he said that the 
Lord being his shepherd he should 
not want anything really good for 
him. But how many our real needs 
are : Needs for the body, needs for 
the soul, needs for our families, needs 
for the present, needs for the future, 
needs for time, needs for eternity; 
our needs are as many as our mo- 
ments. Every sincere Christian can 
say with the saintly Gotthold, "My 
soul is like a hungry and thirsty child, 
and I need his love and consolation 
for my refreshment ; I am like a wan- 
dering and lost sheep, and I need 
him as a good and faithful shep- 
herd ; I am a feeble vine, and I need 
his righteousness ; I am in trouble 
and alarm, and need his solace ; I_ am 
ignorant, and I need his teaching; 
simple and foolish, and I need the 
guidance of his Holy Spirit; in no 
situation, and at no time can I do 
without him." 

II. The source of supply. "My 
God shall supply." 

"Every good gift and every perfect 



gift is from above and cometh down 
from the Father of lights, with whom 
is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning." God will supply all our 
needs. Nobody else can. He can. 
Paul's God is the God of providence. 
"He openeth his hand and supplieth 
the wants of every living thing." He 
is also the God of grace. "My grace 
is sufficient for thee." He is also the 
God of Heaven. He has wonderful 
riches in reserve there. 

III. The measure of supply. "Ac- 
cording to his riches in glory." 

God is a glorious giver. Whatever 
he does is done in a way worthy of 
himself. He gives in a style that be- 
comes his wealth (what the rich of 
earth do not frequently do). He 
gives like a king — according to his 
riches. Sometimes his blessings seem 
too much for us to receive; but he 
reassures us by saying that they are 
not too much for him to give. The 
"riches of his grace" are the treas- 
ures of the Bank of Heaven, to which 
all behevers have free access, and for 
all time. Jesus told his disciples to 
ask, that their joy might be full. 
We might hesitate to make too large 
a draft upon an earthly friend, but 
there is no need to draw light upon 
God, 

"For his grace and power are such 
None can ever ask too much." 

IV. The medium of this supply. 
"By Christ Jesus." Christ is God's 
only begotten and well beloved son, 
therefore nothing is too good, noth- 
ing too great to give for his sake. 
Through Christ we have atonement. 
Through Christ we have a channel 
of communication with God. God is 
in Christ reconciling the world to 
himself. All the promises of God 
are in him "yea and amen," and only 
in him. Everything through Christ, 
and nothing without him. When 
that name is mentioned the gates of 
heaven, and of all heavenly bene- 
diction, fly open. — H. 

Christians as Epistles: Post Re- 
vival 

"Epistles . . . known and read of 
all men . . . written not with ink," 
etc. 2 Cor. 3:2, 3. 

The lives of true Christians at 
Corinth served as letters to recom- 
mend both Paul the servant and 
Christ the Lord. Men read men. 



138 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Living epistles are read when Bible 
epistles are not. 

Five things about these letters are 
mentioned : 

(1) The tablet on which the writ- 
ing is made — "Fleshy tables of the 
heart." 

(2) The writing. Not Christian- 
ity printed in creeds, but the "mind 
of Christ" legible in lives. 

(3) The writer. "The Spirit of 
the living God." Without him we 
can do nothing. 

(4) The pen. God uses human in- 
struments. He used Paul. He uses 
us. 

(5) The readers. They are many. 
They read with varying motives; 
some to comment on us favorably, 
many to do so unfavorably. 

^ I. Observe, first, that every one's 
life is an open letter. 

(1) Addressed to the world and 
challenging inspection. Matt. 5 : 14. 

(2) The challenge is accepted and 
men read and judge us. Acts 4:13. 

n. Notice, also, our life-letter 
should be clearly written, so, easily 
read. Matt. 3 : 18. 

(1) Therefore be not secret Chris- 
tians, but confess Christ openly. 
Mark 3 : 38. 

(2) Then show forth a plain and 
legible life. How many life-epistles 
are so scribbled we can hardly make 
them out. Isa. 43 : 10. 

(3) Consider yourself employed of 
God to reveal Christ. Acts 1 : 8. 

in. Bear in mind, also, how many, 
many are the readers. "Known and 
read of all men." Christian lives 
are about the only religious books 
the world reads. Outsiders form 
their impressions of Christianity, not 
as it is revealed in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, but as it is revealed in us. 
They do not study God's word, but 
they do study church members. Let 
us be careful to reveal only "the 
truth as it is in Jesus." 

ly. Lastly, remember that, like all 
reading, what men read in this way 
has great influence upon them. Acts 
5:15. 

(1) This gives us great opportu- 
nity for good. For we may lead 
men to Christ. 

(2) It also carries great possibili- 
ties of evil. For we may drive men 
from Christ. 

Christian, be a reflector of Christ. 
If ever such living was needed it is 
now. And pure lives are possible — 



as possible as the pearl in the sea, 
but not salty; as the fair lily in the 
foul pond, or as a firefly passing 
through the flame unscorched. In 
the world, but not of it, let us be 
living epistles, known and read of all 
men. — H. 

Being Faithful: After the Revival 

"Moreover it is required of stew- 
ards that a man be found faithful." 
1 Cor. 4:12. 

I. Faithfulness implies, first, a firm 
adherence to the person of Christ. 
It means loyalty. It is required of 
us as Christian stewards that we be 
found faithful and loyal to our Mas- 
ter. The whole world joins in exe- 
crating a deserter. He is hated by 
enemy and friend alike. No one has 
any respect for the Benedict Arnolds 
and Aaron Burrs. Their names are 
hated not only in America, but in 
every civilized land. What is wanted 
is fidelity to Christ. Like the Roman 
soldier taking the oath of allegiance, 
so we bind ourselves to fight with 
and for him even unto death. 

II. This fidelity implies, again, a 
careful and exact performance of the 
duties he assigns us. It is required 
in a steward that he be found faith- 
ful; that means reliable in his work. 
That is a prime quality in all busi- 
ness or professional success. Busi- 
ness houses want clerks who are re- 
liable. Manufacturers want men who 
are reliable. The call everywhere is 
for men of fidelity and reliability. 

In a terrible gale of 1851 the beau- 
tiful lighthouse on Minot's Ledge, 
near Boston, was destroyed. Two 
men were in it at the time. A 
great multitude gathered on the shore 
waiting in anxious distress to witness 
its expected fall. But every hour the 
bell tolled the time, and constantly 
the light shone out into the dark- 
ness to warn the sailor from the 
dangerous spot. No wind could si- 
lence the bell ; no wave extinguish 
the light. But at last one wave, one 
giant wave, mightier than all the 
rest, rose up and threw its arms 
around the tower and laid it low in 
the sea. Then alone was the bell 
silent. Then alone did the light 
cease to shine. Just such faithful- 
ness to duty as was shown by those 
lighthouse keepers is the fidelity we 
shou4d show to the duties Christ as- 
signs us. 

III. This fidelity implies, again. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 139 



firm adhesion to the party of Christ. 

There are but two parties, one for, 
one against. "Ye cannot serve God 
and mammon." Be loyal to the 
people of Christ, the Church of 
Christ, the cause of Christ. 

IV. This fidelity implies also faith- 
ful continuance in well-doing. 

"Be thou faithful unto death, and 
I will give thee a crown of life." 
There is nothing in^ the history of 
Pompeii that invests it with a deeper 
interest than the spot where a soldier 
of Rome displayed a most heroic 
fidelity. That fatal day on which 
Vesuvius, at whose feet the city 
stood, burst out into an eruption that 
shook the earth, a sentinel kept 
watch by the gate which looked on 
the burning mountain. Amidst the 
fearful disorder the sentinel had been 
forgotten ; and as Rome required her 
sentinels, happen what might, to hold 
their posts until relieved by the guard 
or set at liberty by other officers, 
he had to choose between death and 
honor. Pattern of fidelity, he stands 
by his post! Slowly but surely the 
ashes rise on his manly form ; now 
they reach his breast, and now cov- 
ering his lips they choke his breath- 
ing. He also "was faithful unto 
death." After seventeen centuries 
they have found his skeleton stand- 
ing erect in a marble niche clad in 
its rusty armor, the helmet on his 
empty skull, and his bony fingers still 
closing upon his spear. Be thou, 
fellow Christians, likewise faithful 
unto death, and yours shall be a 
Crown of eternal life and glory. — H. 

/ Some Soldier Qualities for Chris- 
tians: Post Revival 

"Fight the good fight of faith." 
1 Tim. 6:12. 

Religion is an appeal to the hero 
qualities in a man or woman. The 
Christian^ life is not a thing to be 
entered into lightly or with the 
thought of ease. We shall not be 
carried to the skies on flowery beds 
of ease. No, we must fight if we 
would reign. 

But it is a "good fight" ; that is, it 
is a fight in a good cause and worthy 
of our effort. It is a happy thing 
also that it is so much easier to fight 
when we know that the cause is a 
good one. 

^ What are some of the special quali- 
ties a soldier must possess in order 
to fight well? Let us think of some 



of them, that we may be led to ex- 
ercise them. 

I. The first we mention is self- 
denial. 

(1) On one side, self-denial means 
simply the giving up of self, as does 
a soldier when he enlists. The Chris- 
tian gives up himself. With this he 
also gives up selfishness and self- 
indulgence and sin. The athlete de- 
nies himself harmful luxuries that 
he may be strong. 

^ (2) But self-denial has a positive 
side. It thinks of the good of 
others. It is not easy for the soldier 
to enlist and leave behind home and 
friends and personal interests. But 
he gives them up for the good of 
his country. The missionary going 
to China must practice much self- 
denial in these directions. But he is 
thinking of the salvation of souls. 
There is plenty of room in the Chris- 
tian life to display this soldier vir- 
tue of self-denial. It is a quality 
we all need in order to fight the good 
fight of faith. 

II. A second quality which the 
good soldier must possess is courage. 

The Christian life is a moral con- 
flict which calls for courage of the 
highest type. For a young man to 
throw up a lucrative position rather 
than connive at dishonesty or engage 
in a wrong transaction, is not an 
easy thing to do. For a young 
woman to keep always to high ideals 
and scorn to do anything that will 
compromise her Christian character 
requires courage. Some of these 
things take as much courage as it 
did for Knox to defy kings or for 
Luther to face the anathemas of 
Rome. 

III. A third necessary quality a 
good soldier must possess is the spirit 
and habit of obedience. 

The Christian soldier's true attitude 
toward the Captain of his salvation 
is this : "Speak, Lord, for thy servant 
heareth;" or this, "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" or this, "Here 
am I, send me." It is the attitude of 
quick, instant, unquestioning, affec- 
tionate obedience. 

And such obedience is born only 
of personal devotion. This is, in- 
deed, the heart of the whole matter. 
The measure of our self-denial, cour- 
age and obedience will depend upon 
the measure of our devotion to the 
Captain of our Salvation. No won- 
der that men who earned the love and 



140 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



personal loyalty of their soldiers, like 
Howard, and Nelson, and Havelock, 
and Phil Sheridan, and Grant, and 
Foch won so many battles. How in- 
finitely worthy fs our Leader! How 
sincerely should we love him! How 
devotedly should we follow him! 
How valiantly and bravely should we 
battle in his cause 1 "Fight the good 
fight of faith !"— H. 

The Secret of a Strong Heart: 
After the Revival 

"Wait on the Lord: be of good 
courage, and he shall strengthen 
thine heart : wait, I say, on the 
Lord." Ps. 27:14. 

This psalm is a song of cheerful 
hope. This hopeful attitude was 
maintained by the Psalmist in the 
face of the fact that he was in most 
distressing circumstances. From the 
psalm itself we gather the inferences 
that he was pursued by enemies (vs. 
2), shut away from God's house (vs. 
4), parted from father and mother 
(vs. 10), and subject to the opposi- 
tion of slander (vs. 12). The cir- 
cumstances seem to point to the time 
when Doeg, the Edomite, spake 
against him to Saul. 

It is also a psalm of personal ex- 
perience. It bears testimony to per- 
sonal blessings received, and of as- 
surances growing out of them. It is 
as though he had said : "I have found 
the Lord my light and my salvation; 
whom then shall I fear? He has 
proven to be the strength of my 
life; and of whom then shall I be 
afraid? When enemies, wicked, 
many, full of cruel hate, made on- 
slaught to destroy me, they stumbled 
and fell. I have decided that though 
a host should encamp against me, I 
will not allow my heart to fail me 
or become fluttered by fear ; yes, 
even though it may come to actual 
war that he will defend me. He 
will hide me in his pavilion. He will 
give me the best shelter in the worst 
danger. A royal pavilion is erected 
in the center of the army, and around 
it all the mighty men keep guard at 
all hours, so will he hide me in this 
very safest place, beside my King. 
Or my safety will be as one in the 
secret of his tabernacle; not at the 
horns of the altar or even in the 
holy place so sacred, but as it were 
in the very holy of holies, — the in- 
ner chamber of Divine presence and 
protection. If not thus hidden, then 



he will set me upon a rock, in some 
strong tower of impregnable situation 
and defense. I had fainted had I not 
had this faith and felt assured thus 
of the goodness and love of God. 
But I have tested his grace and his 
help; my faith has grown out of 
experience, and now I want to com- 
mend to others the God who has 
been so good to me, and my call is 
to all. Wait on the Lord ; be of good 
courage, and he shall strengthen 
thine heart; wait, I say, on the 
Lord." 

The center of that promise is in 
the assurance of having the heart 
strengthened. This is what we all 
so much need and so much desire — 
strength of heart. 

I. The importance of strength of 
heart. 

(1) It is the secret of confidence. 
We will make no effort in a direc- 
tion in which we have no confidence 
or expectation of attainment. 

(2) It is the secret of courage. 
We can scarcely "be of good cour- 
age" without possessing first some 
measure of confidence of success. 

(3) It is the secret of action. A 
strong heart makes a strong arm. 

(4) It is the secret of victory. 
Confidence, courage and action bring 
victory. So all success depends upon 
possessing a strong heart. 

II. The secret of a strong heart. 
A strong heart is usually found 

through some of the various ways of 
"waiting on the Lord." 

(1) In spiritual meditation. While 
we muse the fire burns. Many 
Christians are weak of heart and 
purpose in these days because they 
live in such a hurry and do not take 
time to "wait on the Lord" in the 
way of spiritual thoughtfulness and 
meditation. We need more "quiet 
hours," when we may receive grace 
and strength from God. Many of 
the mighty men of faith and Chris- 
tian usefulness of the past — men like 
Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, etc. — 
were men of much spiritual medita- 
tion. 

(2) In prayer. It is in the act 
of prayer we grow strong of heart 
and fitted for success in God's cause. 
It was as he wrestled with God that 
Jacob, the supplanter, was changed 
to Israel, the prince of God ; with 
princely power with God and men. 

(3) In Bible study. The heart 
grows strong as we read and raedi- 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 141 



tate upon God's precious promises, 
his assurances of help, study his 
character and take into your souls his 
truth. 

(4) In the use of the other means 
of grace — attendance at the house of 
prayer, union with fellow believers 
in the privileges of the sanctuary, 
and actual enlistment in Christian 
service. These are all ways of "wait- 
ing on the Lord" in the steps of 
obedience, and are thus all ways in 
which the heart grows strong. 

Are you lacking in the spirit of 
good cheer and hopefulness? Get 
closer to God and your heart will 
grow strong. Do you find yourself 
lacking in Christian courage? Get 
near enough to grasp his all-con- 
quering hand and you will be able 
to "do exploits" in his name. Are 
you conscious of a sad lack of 
power as a worker? As the trolley 
pole is held up close against the wire 
and power comes down to move the 
car, so hold yourself in intimate con- 
tact with God; wait upon him, keep 
near enough to him for his grace 
to flow into your soul, and you will 
be strong for his service and have 
power to perform wonders. A strong 
heart is necessary to success, and 
the secret of getting that strong heart 
is contact with God. — -H. 

Being God's and Serving God: 
Post Revival 

"Whose I am and whom I serve." 
Acts 27:23. 

This sentence from the lips of 
Paul is worthy of being used as a 
motto by every young Christian, in- 
deed, by every Christian, First, 
"Whose I am,"— to be God's. Then 
"Whom I serve," — to serve God. 
First, belonging to God, dedicated to 
his name, given over to his owner- 
ship. Then "Whom I serve," conse- 
crated to his cause, kept for his use, 
made over heart and hand to his 
service. To be God's and to serve 
God — who could imagine a higher 
ideal? Such an aim steadily adhered 
to would make any life noble. 

Let us follow a little farther this 
thought of being God's. It implies 
the full dedication of ourselves to 
him, a solemn setting ourselves apart 
to him from a sense of duty. The 
word dedicate is from de and dico, 
and signifies to set apart by a prom- 
ise. 

(1) It implies, first, the abstract- 



ing ourselves from all other claims 
of ownership. The person who truly 
dedicates himself to God cannot go 
on serving the world, the flesh and 
Satan. 

(2) It implies not alone this ab- 
stracting of ourselves from other 
claims or ownership, but a solemn 
act of giving ourselves to God. It 
must partake of the nature of such 
a service as when a church is dedi- 
cated. It is an act of setting apart, 
a consecration, a transfer to God's 
ownership and uses. It would be bet- 
ter for us, as Christians, if we made 
more than we do of solemn and defi- 
nite acts in the way of dedication to 
God. 

Several years since some forty 
thousand people stood on the shore 
and watched the launching of the 
St. Louis in the Cramps' shipyard. 
Most of the stays that had held the 
great liner on the incline, on which 
she had been built, were removed, 
and yet she stood there motionless. 
Then, amid an almost audible hush, 
the order was given in answer to 
which great mauls, wielded by mighty 
arms, broke away the few remaining 
braces and, fully released, she glided 
out into the waters of the Delaware, 
freed for service. 

Too many of us are "partly sepa- 
rated" from the world and "partly 
consecrated" to Christ. It is the few 
remaining stays release from which 
we are reluctant to seek which do 
so much to mar the efficiency of our 
service for God. It is supremely im- 
portant that we withdraw ourselves 
from all other claims of ownership 
and turn ourselves over fully to the 
ownership of God. 

We use this word in the active 
sense of devotement to service. 
There is a distinct difference between 
the idea of dedication and devote- 
ment. We dedicate a house to God. 
We devote our time to his service. 
Consecration in this sense follows 
dedication. It means the application 
of ourselves to the object of our 
dedication with zeal and affection. 
First we give ourselves to God ; then 
we devote ourselves to his cause. 
First we be God's and then we serve 
God. 

(1) This implies that we identify 
ourselves with God's cause. His 
cause becomes our cause, his king- 
dom our kingdom, his glory our 
glory. 



142 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



(2) This will lead us to serve his 
Church. The Church is his minis- 
tering body in the world. We will 
identify ourselves with it, put on 
the uniform of his army, march with 
it to battle and do all in our power 
to win for God the victory over all 
the opposing hosts of evil. 

(3) This devotement will also lead 
us to serve individual souls. We will 
try to win others to him, one by one, 
using the power of personal influence 
and persuasion. 

God will use us if we thus devote 
ourselves to his service. When 
Saladin looked at the sword of 
Richard Coeur de Lion he wondered 
that a blade so ordinary should have 
wrought such mighty deeds. The 
English King bared his arm and 
said : "It was not the sword that did 
those things ; it was the arm of Rich- 
ard." We should be instruments that 
God can use. 

He does not send angels to make 
known his gospel. If we are kept 
for the Master's use, given out- 
right to him, set apart for his serv- 
ice, he will make us the instru- 
ments of mighty results in his king- 
dom. 

One thing more is implied in our 
being dedicated to God and^ given 
over to his service — communion, or 
association with God. Both the giv- 
ing of ourselves and of our service 
are love prompted. We therefore 
need converse with the One we 
serve. We will be efficient in service 
just in proportion as we "practice 
the presence of God." We need to 
live under the consciousness that he 
is near, that he sees us, is with us, 
is in us. This is what will make us 
strong and hopeful and cheerful and 
courageous and successful. Give 
yourself to God. Then set out in the 
way of his service. And while thus 
engaged practice the sense of his 
presence. Say to yourself over and 
over again every day "God is here." 
"God is with me." "God is in me." 
"I am his." "He is mine." "God 
is love." "God loves me." Try to 
arrive at an habitual sense of his 
presence. These three steps, dedica- 
tion, consecration and communion 
would give us all useful, happy and 
victorious lives. — H. 

The Summons to Serve 

"Come now, therefore, and I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh. . . . Who 



am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? 
Certainly I will be with thee." — 
Exod. 3:10-12. 

Two things must have astonished 
Moses — an extraordinary sight and 
a startling summons. That burning 
bush which was not consumed was 
something so utterly at variance with 
all experience that it filled him with 
amazement and awe. But more as- 
tonishing still was that wonderful 
commission, "Come, now, therefore, 
and I will send thee unto Pharaoh." 
It is no wonder that Moses shrank 
exceedingly from that strange com- 
mission, that he felt utterly incom- 
petent to discharge it. Yet was he 
fitted, far better than any other living 
man, for that great task. We see the 
application of this passage to our- 
selves when we consider: 

I. God's summons to serve. 
Though God does not call us to such 
high tasks as that to which Moses 
was called, yet he does send us all 
forth to noble service. He says to 
us. Go, bear witness of me ; constrain 
the thoughtless to think of me ; make 
known to the ignorant the truth and 
grace of the Gospel. 

n. Our sense of insufficiency. 
"Who am I?" said Moses; and we 
say. Who are we that we should un- 
dertake this high and noble task? 

(1) That we should take Christ's 
name upon us and represent him in 
the world; that we should undertake 
to live a Christian life and illustrate 
his truth. Are we able to do that 
in such a world as this? 

(2) That we should undertake 
some serious work for Christ and 
for man. Our sense of insufficiency 
arrests us; it silences us as we are 
about to say, "Lord, here are we, 
send us." 

HL Our unrecognized capacity,* 
Moses proved to be perfectly fitted to 
accomplish the task for which he 
thought himself so unequal. He had 
in himself capacities of which he 
was then ignorant, and he had in 
God a Divine resource on which he 
did not for the moment reckon. 

(1) Our fitness to bear Christ's 
name. We may be feeble and even 
faulty, but there are two things which 
qualify us to do this. (1) Decision 
for Christ; the fact that we are no 
longer against him, or indifferent to 
him, or undecided about him, but 
fully resolved to follow and to serve 
him. (2) Such trust in God as will 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 143 



manifest itself in daily prayer for 
his sustaining help. 

(2) Our preparedness to engage in 
work for him. We may be very 
diffident in spirit, sensible of our 
limitations; we may be unendowed 
with any great qualities, mental or 
spiritual. Yet are we qualified to 
do much excellent work for our 
Master if we possess those three 
things which are open to us all to 
acquire: (1) A loving spirit; (2) An 
understanding and appreciation of 
the truth as it is in Christ, the dis- 
tinctive truth of the Gospel. (3) 
Patient, prayerful endeavor. 

"We Bear the Name of Christians*' 

"And the disciples were called 
Christians first in Antioch." Acts 
11:26. 

I. The origin of the name: 

(1) If it was imposed by God, 
it shows that he is solicitous to fix 
the proper aspect in which his people 
are viewed. 

(2) If it was assumed by the dis- 
ciples, it shows that they regarded 
Christ as the centre of their re- 
ligion. 

(3) If it was affixed by the Jews 
or Heathen, it shows that the natu- 
ral mind has no just appreciation of 
spiritual excellence. 

II. The import of the name. 

(1) A believer in Christ. 

(2) A lover of Christ. 

(3) An imitator of Christ. 

(4) A servant of Christ. 

(5) An expectant of Christ. 

The Prodigal Son 

Luke 15:11-24. 

I. Downward course. 

(1) Restless. "Father give me." 

(2) Rebellious. "Gathered all to- 
gether." 

(3) Revelry. "Wasted his sub- 
stance." 

(4) Ruin. "Spent all — in want — 
no man gave unto him," 

II. Upward and homeward course. 

(1) Reflects. "He came to him- 
self." 

(2) Repents. "Hired servants of 
my father have bread and I perish." 

(3) Resolves. "I will arise." 

(4) Returns. "He arose." 

(5) Received. "His father saw him 
and had compassion." 

(6) Reconciled. "His father rose 
and fell on his neck and kissed 
him." 



(7) Reinstated. "Bring forth the 
best robe," etc, 

(8) Rejoicing. "This my son was 
dead and is alive again." 

— London City Missionary. 

Seeking God 

"O God, thou art my God; early 
will I seek thee." Ps. 63 : 1. 

I. The privilege of a good man. 
To seek God. 

(1) God is his Father. (2) De- 
fender. (3) Counsellor. (4) Com- 
forter, 

II, The resolution of a good man. 
"I will seek." 

(1) What is it to seek God? 

(2) Where is God to be sought? 
In his word, ordinances, by prayer, 
reading, 

(3) When is God to be sought? 
Early in life, early in the morning. 
Early. Now, 

(4) Why is God to be sought? 
He is lovely, and makes happy, — 
Rev. Alexander Fletcher. 

Fighting Against God 

"Ye do always resist the Holy 
Ghost," Acts 7:51, 

I. The office of the Holy Ghost 

(1) Convincing. 

(2) Entreating. 

(3) Admonishing. 

(4) Threatening. 

II. The means he uses. 

(1) The Word. 

(2) Examples. 

(3) Conscience. 

(4) Providential dealings. 

III. The modes of resisting him. 

(1) Inattention, 

(2) Procrastination. 

(3) Contradiction, 

Cease to fight against God. Lis- 
ten to the loving, wooing, blessed 
oice of the Holy Spirit in your heart. 

What Is a Christian? 

I. In faith, a believer in Christ. 
Mark 16:16. 

II. In knowledge, a disciple. John 
8:31, 

III. In character, a saint. Rom. 
1:7. 

IV. In influence, a light. Matt. 
5:14. 

V. In conflict, a soldier. 2 Tim. 
2:3, 

VI. In communion, a friend. John 
15:15. 

VII. In progress, a pilgrim. Heb. 
11:13, 



144 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



VIII. In relationship, a child. 
Rom. 8:16. 

IX. In expectation, an heir. Rom. 
8:17. 

Decision for God Demanded 

"Who is on the Lord's side?" Ex. 
32:26. 

This chapter gives account of the 
idolatry of the IsraeHtes, and of the 
wrath of God against them. Their 
idolatry was punished, after which 
the watchword was given, "Who is on 
the Lord's side?" 

I. An implied conflict. "The 
Lord's side." A conflict; hence a 
demand "Who is on the Lord's 
side?" 

II. What is implied in being on 
the Lord's side? A forsaking of 
the opposite side. An espousal of 
God and his cause. A public enlist- 
ment. A military disposition, ready 
to obey the new Commander. A full 
consecration of our powers to his 
cause. 

III. The honor and advantage of 
being on the Lord's side. It is not 
the side of a tyrant, but of the God 
of love and spiritual freedom. It 
is not the side of sin but of purity; 
not of darkness, but of light; not 
of woe, but of bliss. 

(1) It is the strongest side. 

(2) It is the most happy side. 

(3) It is the most useful side. 

(4) It is the side which will ul- 
timately be crowned with victory and 
eternal rewards. 

"Who is on the Lord's side?" 
Come, enlist, now. 

Guidance 
Isa. 58:11. 
L How? 

(1) By his voice. John 10:27. 

(2) With his eye. Psa. 32:8. 

(3) With his counsel. Psa. 73 : 24. 

(4) By his presence. John 10:4. 
IL Where? 

(1) Into paths of peace. Luke 
1:79. 

(2) Into all truth. John 16:13. 

III. How long? 

(1) Continually. Isa. 5:8-11. 

(2) Unto death. Psa. 48 : 14. 

IV. The conditions? 

(1) Grateful acknowledgment of 
past, and present guidance. Prov. 
2:6. 

(2) Committing of the way to him. 
Psa. 87:5. 

— C. E. Parsons. 



Christ in Hebrews 
Heb. 2 : 7-9. 

I. Past — Lower than the angels. 
V. 7. A little while lower. (R. V., 
margin.) 

II. Present — ^But we see not yet 
all things put under him. V. 8. 
Subjected to him. (R. V.) 

III. Present — Crowned with glory, 
etc. V. 9. Crowned as victor. New- 
berry's version. 

IV. Future — Thou hast put all 
things in subjection under his feet. 
V. 8. Compare with 1 Cor. 15 : 23- 
28; Eph. 1:19-23. 

— ^James Sprunt. 

Oh, That I! 

I. The enquirer's lament. Job 23: 
3. 

IL The suppliant's prayer. Job 6: 
8. 

III. The murmurer's complaint. 
Job. 10:18. 

IV. The backslider's remorse. Job 
29:2. 

V.' The rebel's wish. 2 Sam. IS: 
4. 

VI. The believer's desire. Psa. 
9:2. 

VII. The prophet's cry. Jer. 9 : 2. 

— F. E. Marsh. 

Our Environment 

L Before us. Isa. 48:17; Psa. 
139:5; Isa. 52:12. 

IL Behind us. Isa. 30:21; Psa. 
139:5; Isa. 52:12. 

IIL To the right. Psa. 16:8; 41: 
13; Job 23:9. 

IV. To the left. Psa. 18:35; 
Job 23 : 9. 

V. Above. Psa. 36 : 7. 

VI. Beneath. Deut. 33:27. 

VIL Within. 1 Cor. 3:16; Psa. 
125:2. 

— Rev. J. H. Sam mis. 

Obedience 

Profession nothing, unless we show 
obedience. Luke 6:46. Why call 
"Lord" and do not? Not saved by 
obedience (Eph. 2:8, 9), but obedi- 
ence is result of heart belief. Rom. 
10:9, 10. The tree is fruitless until 
its life permeates ; then fruit is seen. 
No fruit indicates deadness. 

2 Tim. 3:5; describes many in the 
church. 

Obey Christ's commands. 

I. Be not conformed. Rom. 12:1. 

II. Let light shine. Matt. 5:6. 

III. To work. Matt. 21 : 28. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 145 



IV. Be steadfast, etc. 1 Cor. IS: 
58. 

In conclusion — not saying, but do- 
ing. Matt. 7 : 21. 

— Weston R. Gales. 

"Called'' 

I. Called to be saints. 1 Cor. 1 : 2. 

II. Called you unto his kingdom 
and glory. 1 Thess. 2 : 12. 

III. Called to the obtaining of the 
glory. 2 Thess. 2 : 14. 

IV. Called unto the fellowship of 
his Son. 1 Cor. 1 : 9. 

V. Called us with an holy calling. 
2 Tim. 1:9. 

VI. Called us unto holiness. 1 
Thess. 4 : 7. 

VII. Called to walk worthily. 
Eph. 4:1. 

VIII. Called that the name of the 
Lord Jesus may be glorified in you. 
2 Thess. 1 : 11. 

IX. Called— heavenly. Heb. 3:1. 

X. Called to inherit blessing. 1 
Pet. 3 : 9. 

XI. Called, them he also justified. 
Rom. 8 : 30. 

XII. Called not of the Jews only, 
but also of the Gentiles. Rom. 9 : 24. 

Three Life Secrets 

I. The Secret of Safety. The 
blood. Ex. 12:13; Lev. 17:11; 
Matt. 26:28; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19; Heb. 
9:22; Rev. 12:11. 

II. The Secret of Assurance. The 
Word. 1 John 5:13; John 5:24; 
20:31; 3:33; Num. 23:19; Psa. 119: 
89 ; Luke 21 : 33 ; 2 Tim. 1:12; John 
10 : 27-29. 

III. The Secret of Lasting Joy. 
Obedience. John 15:9-11; Isa. 1: 
18, 19 ; 1 Sam. 15 : 22, 23. Disobedi- 
ence forfeits joy. Psa. 51 : 12. Here 
is a Hf e motto. John 2:5; Amos 3 : 
3. Conscious manifested presence of 
God, gives joy. Heb. 3: 17, 18; Heb. 
12 : 29. 

— Evangelist Robert L. Layfield. 

Rest in the Lord 
Psa. 37:7. 

I. In God the understanding finds 
rest. 

II. Let intellect, judgment, and 
reason rest in God. 

III. Rest of the affections. Care 
burdened. Weariness will come. 
Work brings it ; cross brings it. Dr. 
Preston, when dying, said, 'T change 
my place, but not my company. 
Whilst here I have sometimes walked 



with God, but now I go to rest with 
him for ever." 

Good Shepherd 

John 10:11-18. 

Bible Shepherd. Gen. 47 : 3 ; Luke 
2:8. 
Lord my Shepherd. Psa. 23. 

I. He knows his sheep. John 10: 
14. 

II. He provides for them. John 
10:9. 

III. He guides them. Prov. 8 : 28. 

IV. He gives his life. John 10 : 15. 

V. He delights in them. 1 Pet. 
2:9. 

Fatherhood of God 

I. Our Father. Matt. 6:9. 

II. A Father. Psa. 103 : 13. 
in. Abba, Father. Rom. 8:15. 
IV. Everlasting Father. Isa. 9 : 6. 

— Rev. J. H. Sam mis. 

Seven Pieces of Armor 

I. Girdle of truth. 2 Cor. 13 : 8. 

II. Breastplate of Righteousness. 
Phil. 3 : 9. 

III. Sandals of the Gospel. Eph. 
2:10. 

IV. Shield of faith. 1 John 5:4. 

V. Helmet of salvation. Psa. 27: 
I. 

VI. Sword of the Spirit. Heb. 
4:12. 

VII. Prayer keeps armor bright. 

God's Wonderful Love 

''God so loved the world, that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." 
John 3 : 16. 

Luther called these words of Christ, 
*'The Bible in miniature." Another 
calls them "The epitome of the Gos- 
pel." One thing is very sure, that 
these words form a wonderfully com- 
prehensive sentence, carrying us into 
the very citadel of truth. Wrapped 
up in this one pregnant statement lie 
the central and fundamental truths 
of redemption. There are other 
truths, but they are subordinate. 
These are chief; these are vital. 
These must be preached if Christ is 
preached. If there is anv uplifting 
regenerating, saving power in Chris- 
tianity we will find it here ; for in 
studying this one sentence we are 
studying the whole scheme of re.-» 
demptive love. 



146 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



I. We find in these words the mo- 
tive of redemption. It was love. 
"God so loved." Back of all efforts 
to rescue the race was God's great 
heart of love. The redemptive mo- 
tive was love. God is love; love is 
sacrifice; the death of Christ was 
the sacrifice of God. Our redemp- 
tion was love prompted, love con- 
ceived, love wrought. Could we but 
bring every conscious sinner ear- 
nestly face to face with this one re- 
flection of God's love, it would melt 
all hearts, it would soften every re- 
bellious thought, it would remove 
each doubt, it would take away every 
fear, and submissively, tenderly and 
very lovingly would every soul be 
found kneeling at the foot of the 
cross. 

II. They reveal the method of re- 
demption. It was by the gift of 
God's Son. "God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son." 
And the Son so loved that he will- 
ingly came "to seek and to save." 
When God gave his Son he knew 
what would be the result ; what treat- 
ment he would receive. God knew 
that from his manger-cradle to his 
cross his only beloved Son would be 
humiliated, and tempted, and perse- 
cuted, and tried, and condemned, and 
scourged, and buffeted, and thorn- 
crowned, and spit upon, and crucified 
—cruelly and shamefully crucified by 
men, and yet — and yet, "God so 
loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son." And Christ so 
loved the world that he "endured the 
cross, despising the shame," and 
"gave his life a ransom for many." 

III. This brings us to a third 
thought, that in all this love and pro- 
vision there was a purpose — ^salva- 
tion. "That whosoever believeth on 
him might not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." The motive, love ; the 
method, sending his Son; the pur- 
pose, salvation. "God sent his Son 
into the world that the world through 
him might be saved." Christ did not 
come simply to teach, to educate or 
to reveal, but to rescue. Had the 
world not needed saving Christ need 
never have come. "But," it may be 
asked, "what is the meaning, the 
character, of this salvation? saved 
from what?" The answer is plain, 
from "perishing," Not from mis- 
fortune, so much; not from trouble, 
nor from ignorance, nor from deg- 
radation — all of these, but infinitely 



more — from everlasting death to 
everlasting life. 

IV. It is just here that there is 
furnished also the ground of our re- 
demption — an atoning sacrifice. "God 
so loved the world that he gave his 
Son" — ^gave him up to atoning, sacri- 
ficial death. That means the cross 
with all its tortures. Christ him- 
self said, "The Son of man must be 
lifted up that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." There, in the cross, 
Christ put his saving power. We 
are to glory only in the cross. "Be- 
hold the Lamb of God," as a sacri- 
fice, a substitute, a propitiation for 
sin, "taking away the sin of the 
world." And, "there is none other 
name under heaven given among men, 
whereby^ we must be saved." 

V. Still more personally impor- 
tant, we are told who are the sub- 
jects of redemption — every one that 
"believeth." "Whosoever believeth." 
God in Christ has made for every 
creature . the fullest, freest, richest 
possible provision, with this one only 
condition — a loving, acquiescing, ap- 
propriating faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The passage brings to us all 
this one boundless, all-inclusive word, 
"Whosoever"; and this one qualify- 
ifig condition, "believing." Meeting 
the condition, at once all the infinite 
wealth wrapped up in this one won- 
derful statement becomes our per- 
sonal possession. — H. 

Choosing God 

"Choose you this day whom ye 
will serve." Joshua 24 : 15-26. 

After a long career of victorious 
warfare, followed by an old age of 
comparative repose, Joshua was now 
drawing consciously near to the end 
of his earthly life, and, like Moses 
before him, determined to give the 
assembled Israelites the advantage of 
his parting counsels. Well knowing 
the dangers that might draw them 
aside it was his desire to so confirm 
the people in the true faith and wor- 
ship of God that after his death they 
might persevere therein. 

I. The choice set before them. 

He summoned the tribes to She- 
chem, recounted the great things Je- 
hovah had done for them in the past, 
and in view of God's character and 
favors urged that they should make 
his service their deliberate and ir- 
revocable choice ; and upon their pro- 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 147 



fession to do so made a solemn and 
formal covenant that they would 
never depart from this devotement 
to duty. 

II. Reasons to induce them to 
right choice. 

Joshua wanted the people to choose 
their religion rationally and intelli- 
gently. He therefore sets forth the 
motives which should induce them to 
a proper course, and then leaves the 
decision for them to make. In the 
early part of his address he had re- 
counted, as in a panorama with scene 
after scene, some of the great things 
God had done for them and their 
ancestors — things such as no idol had 
ever done for its adherents. He 
urges them therefore to put away 
idols and reverence and worship 
God; and not in pretence or form, 
but in sincerity and in truth. 

III. The choice made. 

Having set the choice before the 
people and having by his own ex- 
ample and many other motives urged 
them to a right decision, we now 
hear an instant and unanimous re- 
sponse: "God forbid that we should 
forsake the Lord to serve other 
gods." Their intellects were con- 
vinced. Their hearts were moved. 
They responded with the right de- 
cision. 

IV. The covenant renewed. 

The people having made definite 
and repeated declaration that they 
would serve and obey God, Joshua 
at last took them at their word and 
entered into a formal covenant with 
them. This was probably a solemn 
ratification and renewal of the cove- 
nant of Sinai, but with special fea- 
tures appHcable to the present situa- 
tion. This covenant became a statute, 
or a part of their national law. As 
we read on we find that Joshua wrote 
all these words in the book of the 
law of the Lord, and set up a stone 
monument as a perpetual reminder 
of their promise on this great day. 

Let us not fail to learn these facts, 
namely : The service of God is a 
matter of free choice. It is right 
and wise to bring every good motive 
to bear upon those who are making 
the choice. All good reasons are on 
the ^ side of serving God. Good 
choices should be made without de- 
lay. We should do all we can to 
lead others to make decisions for 
God. We should take special care 
that our households as well as our- 



selves should serve God. Whatever 
others may do we should persevere 
in God's service while life lasts. The 
service of God is worthy of the most 
distinguished men. We must break 
with sin or break with God. Re- 
peated public confession is a help 
toward causing impressions to en- 
dure. Covenants are solemn things 
and should be remembered. Study 
the whole passage carefully and you 
will find it filled with most practical 
suggestions for our lives to-day. — H. 

Elements of Church Strength 

"Put on thy Strength, O Zion." 
Isa. 53 :L 

Some elements of a successful 
church in our times : 

I. Loyalty to the truth of God's 
Word. Bible teachings respecting 
salvation, character and duty are the 
standard by which the church is to 
be governed in accomplishing its mis- 
sion. A church faithful to truth will 
be blessed by the truth. 

II. Intelligent Christian living. It 
is good to have and believe the truth. 
It is better to live it. The church 
that lives well will succeed well. 

III. Activity in service for Christ. 
The church becomes strong by prac- 
tice. Putting forth strength is the 
way to gain strength. The church 
that serves God, he will honor. The 
working church wins. 

IV. ^ Fidelity to the church, its 
worship, work, officers, membership, 
and its good name. 

V. Unity. 'Tn union there is 
strength." If unity and brotherly 
love prevail the church is irresistible. 

VI. Systematic and liberal giving. 
A church that gives will get. A lib- 
eral church is likely to be strong 
spiritually, and every other way. 

Let us do everything we can that 
is right to make our church strong. 
— H. 

Unquestioning Obedience 

"Nevertheless." Luke 5 : 5. 

An aged Christian lady, ripe in ex- 
perience, once told us that she had 
heard a most helpful sermon upon 
the one word, "Nevertheless." We 
began to study the word as found 
in this verse, and discovered that it 
is the key which unlocks the meaning 
of this whole incident. The disci- 
ples had toiled all night and taken 
nothing. Christ's word came to them 
to launch out into the deep and let 



148 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



down their nets for a draught. Si- 
mon answered, saying unto him, 
"Master, we have toiled all the night 
and have taken nothing; neverthe- 
less, at thy word, I will let down the 
net." And when they had thus done 
they inclosed a great multitude of 
fishes. Their unquestioning obedi- 
ence was immediately rewarded. 

I. The attitude in which this word 
reveals the disciples to have been. 

(1) It was the attitude of love. 
"Master, I cannot understand; I do 
not see the why; but you say let 
down your net and I will do it." It 
is the confidence of a servant, born 
of love to the Master. 

(2) The attitude of faith. "I 
seem to have reason to fear that 
there shall be no result. We have 
been toiling all night long and have 
taken nothing. This does not seem 
to be a good place for fishing, espe- 
cially out here in deep water, never- 
theless at thy word — " 

(3) The attitude was one of in- 
stant action — obedience. 

We know the rich reward this act 
of love and faith and obedience re- 
ceived. There was instant return. 
We shall never be losers in obeying 
Christ. Our faith will be surprised. 
Christ never deceives. If we would 
be as ready as these disciples to obey 
Christ we would, like them, be al- 
ways richly blessed. 

II. This attitude of unquestioning 
obedience is one especially appropri- 
ate for the unconverted. 

There are those who wish to be 
Christians. But they say, ''Master, I 
cannot understand ; I have fears as 
to the result; I do not see the reason 
for thy commands, neither do I see 
a way to carry them out." 

Do you feel a longing in your heart 
to become a Christian? If so, you 
may learn a very helpful lesson from 
the ten lepers who came to Christ 
to be healed. They first asked Christ 
to heal them. He said, "Go, show 
yourselves to the priests." They be- 
lieved and began to obey. Then they 
experienced the blessing. "For it 
came to pass that as they went they 
were cleansed." In trustful obedi- 
ence they experienced the healing. 
When they exercised faith by obey- 
ing, Christ exercised his power in 
healing. Oh, what multitudes of 
sin-sick souls fail of ever being 
healed, not because they do not 
sometimes long for it, but because 



they do not take Christ at his word 
and resolutely start out on the way 
of obedience! The thought in the 
mind of Christ is always, "Go, and 
as you go I will give the blessing." 
But you say, "Lord, give me the 
blessing and then I will go." By so 
doing you show both lack of faith 
and lack of acquiescence in Christ's 
plan — not having faith enough to war- 
rant Christ in healing you, and pre- 
sumptuous enough to set up your 
will and demand ' a reversal of 
Christ's known order of action. 
Jesus says to you, "Come unto me 
and I will give you rest." But you 
say, "Lord, give me rest and I will 
come to thee." Jesus says, "Take 
my yoke upon you and you will find 
rest to your soul." But you say to 
him, "Lord, give me rest to my soul 
and I will take thy yoke." 

Or it may be you allow yourself 
to be prevented by doubts about some 
of the doctrines of salvation. But 
Jesus says to you, "If any man will 
do the works he shall know of the 
doctrine." But you say to Christ, 
"Lord, explain to me the doctrines, 
and when these are plain I will do 
the works." 

God says to you, "Wherefore come 
out from among them and be ye 
separate, and touch not the unclean 
thing, and I will receive you and will 
be a Father unto you, and ye shall 
be my sons and my daughters, saith 
the Lord Almighty." But you say, 
"Lord, make me to feel that you re- 
ceive me and art a Father unto me 
and that I am a son or daughter unto 
thee and then I will come out from 
the world and be separate and con- 
fess thee before men." 

There are multitudes of people who 
feel and act in just this way, and 
because they do, stop where they are 
and are lost. Are you longing to be 
healed of the leprosy of sin? You 
will feel Christ's healing power when 
you believe and go forward in in- 
stant, unquestioning obedience, but 
not one moment before. 

III. This attitude of unquestioning 
obedience is the appropriate one for 
all tempted, hesitating Christians fail- 
ing to launch out into the deeper ex- 
perience of the divine life. 

Enter into the grace of God, the 
peace of God, the power of God. 
Strive to know the blessedness of a 
full salvation. Strive to attain the 
highest character. "Covet tlie best 



I 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 149 



gifts." Strive to make the most 
blessed attainments. "Launch out 
into the deep." Commit yourselves 
to his bidding. Say, "Nevertheless 
at thy word, I will." In unquestion- 
ing obedience we will get the bless- 
ing.— H. 

/ Things That Keep Us from God 
"These six things doth the Lord 
hate," etc. Prov. 6 : 16-19. 

We all know that there are things 
that keep us frojn God. It may help 
us to avoid them if we will notice 
what at least a few of them are. 

I. One is a lack of a frank con- 
fession of our sins. 

We cover and excuse and make 
allowances for the wrong things we 
do. But let us be honest with our- 
selves, honest with our fellow men, 
and honest with God. Let us know 
our own selves and not excuse our 
sins. "Confess your sins one to an- 
other and pray one for another." "If 
I regard iniquity in my heart the 
Lord will not hear me." Let us be 
careful not to cover our sins, or 
excuse them, or apologize for them. 

II. Another is the hurry of life. 
Many of us are in danger of being 
"jostled out of our spirituality." We 
scarcely take time to think. The 
rush and hurry of life will prevent 
our converse with God unless we 
are watchful to "live in the Spirit 
and walk in the Spirit." There is a 
beautiful hymn we sing, "Take time 
to be holy." It takes time to be holy. 
We need to take time for meditation 
and for prayer. Meditation kindles 
thought and thought kindles love. 
"Come ye yourselves apart into a 
desert place and rest awhile." Let us 
be watchful to take seasons for 
thought and communion with Christ, 
and for the cultivation of our spirit- 
ual natures. 

III. Another thing that keeps us 
from God is irregularity of spiritual 
nourishment. We read God's word 
at very irregular intervals. We pray 
only occasionally. We attend God's 
house too seldom. Instead, we ought 
to seek spiritual nourishment at 
stated times. We need communion 
with God as much as we need our 
daily bread. And there is a large 
power to hold us, and make us strong, 
in taking of regular seasons for spir- 
itual^ thought and prayer and com- 
munion. 

IV. Another, the attractions of 



worldliness. This is a beautiful 
world. God wants us to be happy 
in it. We are in the world, but too 
many of us have the world in us. 
We are told that while in the world 
we are to be not of it. It is all right 
for the boat to be in the water, but 
when the water gets into the boat the 
boat sinks. So when money getting 
and pleasure getting fill us, our spir- 
itual life is submerged. Let us watch 
against reserving the best of our 
time and the best of our talent for 
self. Selfishness will certainly keep 
us from God. 

V. Still another is grieving the 
Spirit. This good messenger, the 
Holy Spirit, comes to us over and 
over again and we do not receive 
him. He points out a duty and we 
do not do it. He calls us to a higher 
life and we do not aspire or try to 
climb. We turn him aside. We 
drown his voice in the confusion of 
earthly things. We go on heedless of 
his love and of his call. In so doing 
we grieve him and cut ourselves 
away from the grace and blessing of 
God. "Grieve not the Spirit of 
God." 

VI. Deliberate disobedience. This, 
of course, is sure to drive us away 
from God. "Your sins have sep- 
arated between you and God." This 
is always one result of sin. Sinful 
meditation, sinful thoughts, sinful 
deeds, — these we know build barriers 
between us and our heavenly Fa- 
ther. Let us guard against the 
things that separate between our souls 
and God. Let us cleave to the things 
that will bring us near to him. — H. 

Keeping Ourselves in the Love of 
God: Post Revival 

"Keep yourselves in the love of 
God," etc. Jude 21. 

In order to keep ourselves in a 
loving attitude towards God there are 
some things to be avoided and some 
things actively to be done. 

I. Things to be avoided. 

Let us shun carefully everything 
that would be likely to dampen the 
fervor of our affections or extin- 
guish the holy fire. If we have taken 
Christ as our Master let us follow 
him. When a dog is following two 
men their parting shows which is 
master. Sin and holiness do not pro- 
ceed along the same road. We must 
choose which way we will go. 

(1) Avoid the indulgence of a 



I50 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



worldly spirit. We have read of a 
boy who tied his horse to his arm. 
The horse ran away and the boy was 
much injured. We must hold the 
world so loosely that it can never 
drag us with it. 

(2) Never parley with temptation. 
Temptation is an enemy outside the 
castle gate seeking by persuasive 
words to gain an entrance, but when 
once we let it in we will find it a 
Trojan horse full of armed men to 
overcome us. 

(3) Never compromise with sin. 
Never say, *T will choose the least 
of two evils." Choose neither. Be- 
cause it was cold the camel asked the 
Arab to let him put his head into the 
door of the tent. There being no 
hindrance he got in with his fore 
feet. Then with his whole body. 
"Hold," said the Arab, "there is not 
room enough for two." "Then," said 
the camel, "you had better get out." 
That is the way it always ends. 
Compromises with sin are always 
dangerous. 

II. Things to be done. 

Religion is not a series of "don'ts." 
We cannot pump darkness out of a 
room. _ It cannot be baled out ; open 
the windows and let in the light! 
So we cannot force evil out of the 
soul except by letting God in. What 
are some of the things that let in 
light to the soul? 

(1) Prayer. 

(2) Study of the Bible. 

(3) Meditation. 

(4) Association with Christian 
companions. 

(5) The preserving of a tender 
conscience. 

(6) The engaging humbly and 
heartily in every form of Christian 
service. If we would keep ourselves 
in the love of God, we must culti- 
vate the graces and imitate him in 
deeds of mercy and loving kindness. 
— H. 

What Is a Christian? 

"And the disciples were called 
Christians first at Antioch.'* Acts 11 : 
26. 

Following the martyrdom of Ste- 
phen the disciples were widely scat- 
tered by persecution. But every- 
where they went they preached the 
gospel of Christ. The hand of the 
Lord was with them and multitudes 
believed. In Antioch, especially, con- 
verts were made in great numbers. 



Possibly in derision, here the name 
^yas bestowed upon them of "Chris- 
tians." "The disciples were called 
Christians firs^t in Antioch." 

While the question as to how they 
came to be called by this name, and 
why, is an interesting one, we wish 
now to speak only on the more vital 
theme as to what a Christian really 
is. 

I. A Christian is one who has ac- 
cepted Christ as a personal Saviour. 

We call ours a Christian nation, 
but in reality it is not. We speak of 
ours as a Christian community, but 
in the strict sense it is not. People 
do not like to be called by the name 
Mohammedans or heathens or infidels 
and so we usually speak of our peo- 
ple as Christians. The name has be- 
come acceptable and the people are 
pleased to be classed under it. But 
to belong to a Christian civilization 
does not make one a Christian. To 
be really a Christian is a very dif- 
ferent thing than to be called by the 
name. The becoming a Christian im- 
plies a personal transaction between 
the soul and Christ. A Christian is 
one who realizing his sinful life and 
lost_ condition has put his trust in 
Christ for salvation. 

II. A Christian is one who bears 
the name of Christ. 

At least he ought not to be 
ashamed to confess Christ by open 
avowal. "If any man suffer as a 
Christian let him not be ashamed." 
Take the name. Abide by it come 
what may on that account. 

Then, too, be careful not to dis- 
honor the name. 

Alexander the Great is said to have 
had a soldier in his army of the same 
name as himself. The soldier be- 
came known as a great coward. 
Alexander sought him out and com- 
manded him: "Either change your 
name or change your conduct." 
Bearing the name of Christ we should 
strive ever to bear it worthily. "Let 
him that nameth the name of Christ 
be careful to depart from iniquity." 
Let us remember, too, that the name 
is a binding name, and involves the 
recognizing of brotherhood with all 
who have like precious faith with 
ourselves. If we are Christians we 
are one with all, the world over, 
who strive to serve our common 
Master. 

III. A Christian is one who is 
trying to follow in Christ's way. He 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 151 



studies to know Christ's will and to 
do it. He is a learner in Christ's 
school. But he tries faithfully to 
improve. He may not succeed as 
well as he would like, but he "presses 
toward the mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
He is a disciple trying ever to catch 
the spirit of his Master. And it does 
not contradict his profession, either, 
that he so often comes short of what 
he aims to do or be. People may 
expect perfection of him. They may 
ridicule him when he fails. But all 
the same he is known of his Mas- 
ter as one who is faithfully trying to 
be what he would have him be and 
do what he would have him do. 

IV. A Christian is also one who 
is enlisted in the cause of Christ. 
He not only strives to be himself like 
Christ, to heed his instruction and 
imitate his character, but to actively 
promote his cause. He enlists heart- 
ily in his service. He strives also to 
get others to enlist. Saved himself 
he strives to save others. He does 
all the good he can, to all the people 
he can in all the ways he can, as long 
as ever he can. He does it because 
he loves both his Master and his Mas- 
ter's cause. Christ's interests be- 
come his interests ; Christ's cause be- 
comes his cause ; Christ's glory be- 
comes his glory. 

V. A Christian is one who will be 
admitted to heaven. 

Having accepted Christ, Christ will 
accept him in glory. Having ac- 
knowledged Christ, Christ will ac- 
knowledge him before the angels in 
heaven. Having tried to follow 
Christ's way, Christ will bring him 
entirely into that way through the 
character development of heaven. 
Having enlisted in the cause of 
Christ, Christ will give him part in 
the final triumph. Indeed, having 
been "faithful unto death," Christ 
will give him that "crown of life" 
which he has reserved for all that 
love him. — H. 

Constraining Love of Christ 

"The love of Christ constraineth 
us." 2 Cor. 5 : 14. 

An incident is related of a man 
who, before the war, traveling in the 
South, became much interested in a 
young colored girl, purchased her 
from her master and gave her her 
liberty. After the bargain had been 
made with her owner the man found 



difficulty in getting the girl to realize 
that she was actually free. At last 
it did dawn upon her what it all 
meant, but instead of exulting in her 
new-found liberty, she exclaimed: 
"Oh, he redeemed me; I will follow 
him ; I can never thank him enough ; 
I will serve him all my life!" She 
did accompany him to his Northern 
home, and as people marked her lov- 
ing attention to every wish of her 
new-found friend it seemed her ever- 
sufficient reply, "He redeemed me! 
He redeemed me!" 

So have we as Christians One who 
ransomed us. He is our Redeemer, 
our Saviour, our Friend. He died 
that we might live. Is it strange, 
then, that realizing all this we should 
often say, "The love of Christ con- 
straineth us" ? Here is the true spirit 
of consecration, which lifts our lives 
above the compulsion of "must" to 
the region of a glad and willing- 
hearted service. 

I. First, the love of Christ is the 
constraining motive under which we 
enter the Christian life. 

This is what Christ referred to 
when he said: "I, if I be Hfted up, 
•will draw all men unto me." No 
one can stand before the cross, realiz- 
ing that the Sufferer is dying for 
him and not be moved. "We love 
him because he first loved us." That 
hymn we so often sing pictures ex- 
ac<:ly what passes through the soul of 
the sinner in sight of the cross. 
Standing with eyes upon the Divine 
Sufferer he exclaims: 

"Alas ! and does my Saviour bleed 
And does my Sovereign die ; 
Does he devote that sacred head 
For such a worm as I? 

"Is it for crimes that I have done 

He groans upon the tree? 
Amazing pity! Grace unknown! 
And love beyond degree!" 

But in sight of such love as that 
a new impulse takes possession of 
him, and he exclaims : 

"But depths of grief can ne'er repay 
The debt of love I owe; 
Here, Lord, I give myself to Thee, 
'Tis all that I can do." 

This is the spiritual analysis of 
thousands upon thousands of con- 
versions. The love of Christ is the 



152 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



constraining motive under which we 
enter the Christian life. 

II. This love, too, is the inciting 
motive under which we are led to 
an open confession and acknowledg- 
ment of Christ. 

This impulse may find illustration 
by the case of a soldier at the battle 
of Williamsburg. He had the artery 
of his arm severed by a fragment of 
a shell and was fast bleeding to 
death. His life could be saved in a 
moment if some one would but bind 
up the artery. He saw a surgeon 
riding at a distance. Lifting his hand 
he called to him for help. The doc- 
tor dismounted and gave the needed 
relief. As he started to go the man 
exclaimed: "Doctor, what is your 
name ?" "Oh ! no matter about that," 
was the reply. "But, doctor, I want 
to tell my wife and my children who 
it was that saved me !" _ Just so, 
when Christ comes to us binding up 
our broken hearts, healing our 
wounded spirits, and saving our dy- 
ing souls, is it any wonder that there 
comes a longing desire to tell others 
what he has done for us and openly 
confess him everywhere? "The love 
of Christ constraineth us." It 
should never be a hard, but a very 
glad and happy thing to openly ac- 
knowledge and confess our Sav- 
iour. 

III. Again, love is the impelling 
motive back of all self-denial, self- 
sacrifice and labor for Christ. 

Tlie true Christian does not give 
up sinful indulgences because he 
must, but because he desires to do 
so. The love of Christ constraining, 
he desires to deny himself for 
Christ's sake. Self-sacrifice for Christ 
becomes pleasure and work for him 
the highest delight. — H. 

Peter's Downward Steps: a Warn- 
ing 

"And there was also a strife among 
them," etc. Luke 22:24-62. 

The Bible teaches not only by pre- 
cept, but by example. When it would 
inculcate faith we have a catalogue 
of faith-filled men, as in the elev- 
enth chapter of Hebrews. So are we 
warned of the danger of denying 
Christ by the example of Peter. 
Satan still desires to "have" souls 
that he may "sift" them. 

Peter's fall was not altogether sud- 
den. It was not accomplished in him 
by a single act of apostacy. It was 



a cumulative result. Something led 
up to it. As some one has said, 
"Men fall as trees do, by becoming 
rotten at the heart." There must be 
some weakening process of decay 
leading up to a Christian's fall. In 
Peter's case that process is clearly 
traced. Let us note its progressive 
downward steps. 

I. We see him with the other dis- 
ciples quarrehng among themselves as 
to who should be greatest. The in- 
dulgence of such a spirit in the Chris- 
tian^ always leads to worse things. 
Christ rebuked this sin in them, and 
taught them a lesson of humility. 
He told them they could be great 
only by being great servants. He 
said the kings of the Gentiles exer- 
cise lordship over them, but impres- 
sively added, "It shall not be so 
among you." Among his disciples 
greatness was to be measured by 
serviceableness. 

II. We find him in the face of 
tenderest and most direct warning, 
self-confident and boasting. He said, 
"I am ready to go with Thee both 
unto prison and to death." Another 
evangelist puts it .even stronger : 
"Though all men should deny Thee, 
yet will not I." But how little he 
knew his own weakness ! How ut- 
terly he overestimated his own 
strength ! And this very confidence 
in self, in the face of warning, is al- 
ways a sign of weakness and sin in 
the soul. Bravest soldiers turn white 
as they go into battle. Only cow- 
ards enter thoughtlessly. "Put no 
confidence in the flesh." Peter was 
too self-confident. 

III. We see him sleeping while his 
Master is wrestling with the powers 
of darkness in the garden. Christ 
came to them and said, "Why sleep 
ye ! rise and pray lest ye enter into 
temptation," Sleeping was not a very 
promising sign of superior devotion. 
Here Peter shows that he was no 
stronger than others. 

IV. We see him following his 
Master afar off. Is this the man 
who was ready to go to prison and to 
death with him? who was going to 
stand by him though all men for- 
sook him? He has certainly gone 
back not a little. "Afar off" por- 
tends worse things to come. _ It_ is 
away from the source of inspiration 
and strength. 

V. Still another step, we see this 
disciple sitting down among Christ's 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 153 



enemies and warming himself at their 
fire. And this, too, while Christ was 
undergoing shameful treatment. It 
is bad for any of us when we take 
our place among Christ's enemies, 
when we warm ourselves at their 
fires, when we "sit down among 
them." When we act with them we 
are counted with them, and we are 
in a current that is hard for us to 
stem. 

VI. One step more: We are pre- 
pared to see him take it — that last, 
headlong, miserable plunge of denial. 
Three times he denied him, each time 
in more shameful way than the last, 
until he added cursing and blasphemy 
to his lying. How rapid the descent! 
How complete the fall ! How base 
the desertion, and this at the time of 
Christ's extreme need! 

Learn the immeasurable peril of 
just one act of wrong doing. 

Learn how commonplace in seem- 
ing is even the most notable sin. 

Learn that one denial makes a fatal 
facility for doing it again. 

Remember that there is repentance 
unto life. Such repentance Peter 
afterwards showed. — ^H. 

A New Creature 

"If any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature." 2 Cor. 5 : 17. 

I. His judgments are new. His 
judgment of himself, of God, of the 
purpose of life, or happiness is 
formed by truth. 

II. His purposes are new. His 
great purpose is to serve God. Every 
other purpose is subservient to this 
one grand master purpose of his new 
being. 

III. His desires are new. "Whom 
have I in heaven but thee," etc. 

IV. His conversation is new. He 
spake of things above. 

V. His actions are new. He walks 
in Christ. 

Bring Them In 

"Go out and compel them to come 
in." Luke 14 : 23. 

Men need to be constrained to 
come to God. It was for this pur- 
pose that we ourselves were saved, 
that we might be of service in bring- 
ing others to Christ. We could do 
this service if we went about it in 
the right way. It can be done by 

(1) Getting interested in the whole 
man. There's more to a man than 
his soul, and we ought to be con- 



cerned about the man in his entirety. 
Practical Christianity is needed. 

(2) Giving a cordial welcome to 
the stranger in the house of God. 

(3) A cheerful Christian disposi- 
tion. 

(4) An earnest, consistent Chris- 
tian life. 

— Rev. W. E. Biederwolf, D.D. 

The Worth of a Man 

"How much is a man better than a 
sheep." Matt. 12 : 12. 

The soul of man is immortal. 
Then three things follow : 

(1) One man is worth just as 
much as another. Manhood is not 
measured by the purse, nor b"'' inches 
nor brains. 

(2) We ought to be more con- 
cerned about the salvation of a man 
than the safety of a sheep. That 
goes without saying, but it also goes 
without practicing. 

(3) We ought to be more con- 
cerned about our own souls than 
some of us are. — Rev. W. E. Bieder- 
wolf, D.D. 

The Will to Be Saved 

*T will arise and go." Luke 15 : 18. 

I. The love of God is immeasura- 
ble ; but were it a thousand times as 
infinite as it is, it could not save the 
sinner against his will. The hand of 
Christ that was pierced for our de- 
liverance is extended in vain unless 
the sinner grasps it. The door of 
the Father's house is open; but the 
prodigal must arise and go. 

II. And when he resolves to re- 
turn to the Father's house, it is 
obvious that he must return by the 
way that leads to it. "I am the way," 
said Jesus ; "no man cometh unto the 
Father but by me." Absolutely there 
is no other way. "I am the door," 
said Jesus ; but so far as the salva- 
tion of the sinner is concerned the 
door might just as well have re- 
mained shut unless he wills to enter 
it. — Rev. David James Burrell, D.D. 

Knowing and Doing 

"To him that knoweth to do good 
and doeth it not, it is sin." Jas. 4 : 17. 

The meanest man in the world is 
the man who won't do what he knows 
he ought to do ; the cowardliest man 
in the world is the man who is afraid 
to do it. The text applied to four 
different kinds of men : 

(1) The hypocrite. 



154 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



(2) The man who is delaying his 
decision for Jesus Christ. 

(3) The backslider. 

(4) The Christian who is not con- 
cerned for the soul of his neighbor. 
— Rev. W. E. Biederwolf, D.D. 

Daily Things in Christian Life 

I. Daily renewing of the inner 
man. 2 Cor. 4 : 16. 

II. Daily reading of the Word. 
Neh. 8 : 18. 

III. Daily prayer to the Lord. 
Psa. 16 '.Z. 

IV. Daily praising of the Lord. 
Psa. 72 : 15. 

V. Daily exhortation of one an- 
other. Heb. 3:13. 

VI. Daily cross to bear. Luke 9: 
23. 

Being Saved by Saving 

"They that turn many to righteous- 
ness shall shine as the stars forever 
and ever." Dan. 12 : 3. 

We are saved by faith in Jesus, 
but rewards are according to service. 
If we sow sparingly, we shall reap 
also sparingly. Every child of God 
may have an abundant entrance into 
the life eternal, or be saved so as by 
fire. Moses had respect unto the 
recompense of the reward, therefore 
he renounced Egypt for Christ. 

I. The greatest work of the Chris- 
tian world is telling others of Jesus. 
This is our true ideal. Hitch your 
soul to a star by helping to save an- 
other soul. It is said that an old 
mountaineer always directed the 
stranger by saying, "Always take the 
upper turn in the road." So heav- 
enly voices invite us to look up and 
lift up. As we see the resplendent 
gems studding the night with glory 
and hear them say, "Come up higher, 
and shine among us forever," we 
reach out for another precious im- 
mortal to join us in the constellations 
of heaven for Jesus' sake, for his 
own sake and for your sake, whose 
reward shall be great. 

II. Let us not be like those who 
may have crowns without a single 
star, but like those who have not a 
single star lacking in their crown. 
We shall not be like the unknown 
graves in a soldiers' cemetery, but 
well known, for each will shine with 
a luster all his own. Let us there- 
fore run so that we may obtain an 
incorruptible crown, full of soul gems, 
growing brighter forever. 



Our Best Helper 

"I will help thee." Isa. 41 : 10. 

I and thee. Two persons. The 
person speaking is Jesus our God 
who can help, and the person spoken 
to means everybody who needs his 
help and seeks it. 

I. He is always near to help, 

II. He is always able to help. 

III. ile is always willing to help. 

IV. He is always kind in helping. 

Seeking the Lord 

"Seek the Lord, and ye shall live." 
Amos 5 : 6. 

Israel was in the days of the 
prophet Amos wicked and rebellious 
and saw that they were bringing 
wretchedness, ruin and death upon 
themselves as a result of their sinful 
conduct, hence he calls upon them 
to seek him, assuring them that their 
condition, though lamentable, is not 
hopeless. 

The words of God through his 
prophet are applicable to us to-day. 

I. The duty urged. '*Seek the 
Lord." This implies 

(1) First, the fact that many have 
lost God. "Your iniquities have sepa- 
rated between you and your God." 

(2) Secondly, that men must 
awaken to the fact that they have 
lost God. Before we can seek God 
we must become deeply conscious of 
what we have lost. 

(3) Thirdly, it implies the duty of 
earnest inquiry as to how the Lord 
may be found. The soul in earnest 
to pursue. "Oh, that I knew where 
I might find him." ^ "What shall I do 
to be saved?" This is the language 
of the penitent in search of God. 

(4) It implies finally the coming to 
God in the way of his appointment. 
(1) Confessing sin. (2) Forsaking 
sin. (3) With faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

II. The encouragement given. 
"And ye shall live." "If by one man's 
offence death reigned by one ; much 
more they that receive abundance of 
grace, and of the gift of righteous- 
ness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus 
Christ" "Ye shall live." 

(1) Live in happy and intimate 
communion with God. 

(2) Live in the life abundant 
Christ gives and the full exercise of 
your God-given powers. 

(3) Live eternally. "Whosoever 
believeth in him shall not perish, but 
have everlasting life." 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES i55 



Con. "It is time to seek the 
Lord." 

Lovest Thou Me? 

"Lovest thou me ?" John 21 : 16. 

I. Consider the feelings of a true 
Christian toward Christ. A true 
Christian is not simply a baptized 
person, a church-member, a respecter 
of religion, but he is a person who 
has some definite relations toward 
Christ. He trusts Christ as his only 
hope of salvation. He hopes in 
Christ as the one who fulfills his ex- 
Ipectations. He follows Christ as 
his example and the one who will 
lead him to heaven. And, above all, 
he loves Christ; he has a personal 
attachment to^ him, and a delight in 
him, in his will, in his success. 

Love indeed, is the mainspring of 
all service to Christ. The heart 
must be enlisted before the hands 
will move. The true Christian says, 
"The love of Christ constraineth me." 
Where this love is lacking there may 
be, indeed, excitement, enlistment, in- 
terest for a time, but no patient con- 
tinuance in well .doing. Love is the 
secret of the Christian's persistence 
in well doing. The soldier fights 
best who has love for a commander, 
or a cause. There may be, and 
usually is, a great difference between 
the interest of a nurse who, as a 
stranger, is employed to care for a 
sick child and the feelings and atten- 
tion of the mother. It is love that 
constrains the mother and leads to 
highest devotion. 

II. How this love to Christ makes 
itself known. 

(1) If we love him we will like to 
think about him. It is the character- 
istic of love that it likes to dwell in 
thought upon the object of its love. 
So a true Christian will not forget 
Christ, — ' Christ's wishes, Christ's 
cause, Christ's honor. Love will 
bring o^ten recurring thoughts to our 
Saviour and attention to his will. 

(2) If we love him we will be 
glad to hear about him. 

"How sweet the name of Jesus 

sounds 
In a believer's ear." 

■ We like to hear of those whom we 
love. 

(3) If we love him we will be glad 
to read about him. We always re- 
joice to receive a message from an 
absent child, a husband or friend. 



So the messages Christ sends will be 
the Christian's delight. 

(4) If we love him we will try 
to please him. This is a trait of love ; 
it always considers what will gratify 
the loved one. If we love him we 
will try to do the things he will ap- 
prove. We will strive not to do things 
he disapproves. Love does not mur- 
mur that Christ's requirements are 
strict; it is scarcely aware that they 
are ! "The yoke is easy and the bur- 
den light." This is because of love. 

(5) H you love him you will love 
his friends. This is a well known 
trait of love. We love our friends' 
friends. 

(6) If we love him we will be very 
careful of his good name and honor. 
This is another universal sign of 
love. 

(7) If we love him we will love 
to talk to him, and be with him ! 
This is why Christians go to places 
where he is found. It is also a rea- 
son why they look forward with de- 
Hght toward Heaven. 

Test yourselves. Do you love 
him?— H. 

According to Your Faith: Prepara- 
tion for Revival 

"According to your faith be it unto 
you." St. Matt. 9:9. 

Entered upon another year of labor 
for Christ and his cause, every true 
minister, officer and member of our 
churches is wishing to be more con- 
secrated and successful than ever be- 
fore. As Christian workers we all 
agree in hoping to see in the weeks 
and months just before us multitudes 
of souls won to Christ and his 
Church. 

I. The hindering power of un- 
behef. 

If we are disappointed in seeing 
the blessings we desire, let us know 
that the reason will be found prin- 
cipally in the sin of unbelief. In 
each church the measure of our bless- 
ings will be according to the measure 
of our faith. Recall that incident of 
Christ's visit to Nazareth. It was 
his old home, his own neighborhood 
where he was brought up, and he 
came laden with blessings for his old 
friends and associates if they would 
accept; "but" it is recorded, "he 
could not do many mighty works 
there because of their unbelief." As 
Christ came to the synagogue that 
day ready to bless the people so is it 



156 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



when he visits his churches still. 
And as the measure of the blessing 
was according to the measure of their 
faith, so it is still. 

In order then to receive fulness of 
blessing, how important is it that we 
swing wide open the door of faith. 
How often we are like those Chris- 
tians praying for Peter in prison! 
Bring to mind the scene. The people 
praying for his release; while they 
|vere praying he knocked at the door ; 
but they would not believe it was 
Peter. He continued knocking. 
When they opened the door and saw 
it was indeed he, they were "aston- 
ished" ! Think of it. The Church 
praying. God answering. And the 
people astonished ! How often it is 
that Christ, consistently with his own 
character, really cannot do many 
mighty works in our churches "be- 
cause of our unbelief." 

n. The obtaining power of faith. 

Oh, members of Christ's beloved 
Church, why not open wide the door 
of faith and ask and undertake and 
expect great things from the Lord? 
Let u^ lay our plans wide and large. 
He says, "According to your faith 
be it unto you." It is as if one very 
rich were to hand us a blank check 
with his name signed, and say, "Now, 
fill it out yourself; write in! the 
amount you would draw, and accord- 
ing to your faith in me be it unto 
you." We might hesitate to make 
too large a draft upon an earthly 
friend, but there is no need to draw 
lightly upon God. Instead, he is 
honored and pleased when we make 
large drafts. 

Not long before his death it was 
our privilege to meet at Clinton 
Springs, N. Y., that grand old Chris- 
tian philanthropist, George H. Stuart. 
Just after the battle of Gettysburg, 
when medicines were very scarce, 
Mr. Stuart, then the head of the 
Christian Commission, telegraphed 
to the merchants of Boston, "May I 
draw on you at sight for ten thou- 
sand dollars?" The telegram was 
posted in the Exchange. Thirty 
minutes later there flashed back along 
the wire : "Draw on us for sixty 
thousand !" Lord, increase our faith. 
May it not be that we are asking 
and expecting only a little of the 
quickening of the Spirit? Asking 
and expecting to see only a few souls 
saved? asking and expecting God to 
honor a small draft only, when the 



reply comes flashing from his throne : 
"Not ten thousand, but sixty thou- 
sand! Prove me now. Honor me 
with a large draft. Put me to the 
proof, if I will not open the windows 
of heaven and pour out a blessing 
that there shall not be room enough 
to receive." Nothing can hinder the 
richest blessings wd could wish — 
nothing but unbehef. Unbelief stops 
prayer, stops expectation, stops work, 
cuts the very nerve and sinew of 
effort. But faith removes mountains, 
surmounts difficulties, overcomes the 
world, brings sure success. "If thou 
canst believe ; all things are possible 
to him that believeth." — H. 

Warning Against Shipwreck: Post 
Revival 

"Holding faith and a good con- 
science; which some having put 
away, concerning faith have made 
shipwreck." 1 Timothy 1 : 19. 

A few years ago it was our privi- 
lege to have place on a ship that was 
being launched, and feel the thrill of 
excitement as she shot down the 
stays and plunged into her ocean 
home. After the momentary excite- 
ment of the motion of the ship, the 
cheering of the muUitude, the be- 
stowing upon the vessel of a name, 
there came the thought of not a little 
solemnity in considering the many 
storms the boat would likely have to 
meet. Nor were these thoughts ill- 
conceived, for upon the first voyage 
she was caught in a violent gale and 
had her bowsprit carried away. We 
are glad to say that she is floating 
still and doing good service. Never- 
theless, we still consider it a solemn 
and impressive sight to see any ves- 
sel start on its life voyage, for it al- 
ways brings up the thought as to 
what she may meet. 

If this is true of a vessel how much 
more so of a Christian starting, or 
even some distance on, in the voyage 
of life. Paul plainly speaks of some 
who having put away faith and a 
good conscience, have made spiritual 
shipwreck — are wrecked for two 
worlds. Let us pay heed to some 
warnings to prevent such shipwreck. 

I, Don't lose your reckoning. 

Paul mentions at least two ways of 
doing this. 

(1) By putting away faith. There 
are many who in their early homes 
were taught the truth of God and 
were well instructed in the way of 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 157 



life, but they have let intellectual 
pride come in. They are not true to 
the religion of their fathers. They 
have gradually put away faith. They 
are resting now only in some theory 
of future probation or "eternal hope," 
are just drifting, or answer all ques- 
tions with the agnostic's reply, _ 'T 
don't know." Where are you spirit- 
ually? "1 don't know." How do 
you stand related to Gk)d and etern- 
ity? *'I don't know." Then, my 
dear friend, you have lost your 
reckoning. 

After a voyage of three thousand 
miles the Schiller was wrecked on 
Bishop's Rock, at the very foot of 
Bishop's Rock Lighthouse. Captain 
Thomas thought he was two miles at 
least off the rocks, but he really did 
not know where he was. His mis- 
take sent three hundred and forty- 
two souls unwarned to eternity. 

But ship captains are not the only 
people who lose their reckoning. 
Every day you can find people who 
do not know where they are. Ask 
them how they stand related to God 
and Christ and the Bible and heaven. 
They cannot tell you. They are sail- 
ing thoughtlessly — maybe recklessly 
— almost upon an awful reef of de- 
struction ; and yet they go on. Let 
me entreat you to stop. Stop ! Stop 
stockstill until you find out where 
you are! ^^ou are running in a fog. 
The law requires you to stop and get 
your reckoning. It is an awful thing 
for one to put away faith, lose his 
reckoning and, drifting, make ship- 
wreck of the soul. 

(2) By tampering with conscience. 
Indeed, nearly everyone who goes 
wrong begins in this way. 

A few years ago one of our fine 
Cunarders lost her reckoning and 
came near being lost. When they 
discovered the cause they found that 
a nail had been driven in the pilot- 
house carelessly near the compass, 
and had deflected it a little so that 
it was not trustworthy to steer by. 
To be sure, the deflection was very 
slight, but in the width of an ocean 
voyage it made not a little difference 
in the direction of the vessel. 

Just so it is with conscience; it is 
liable to be deflected by very little 
things. This is one reason why we 
should always act with decision even 
in the smallest matters of duty — in 
order to keep conscience true. If 
you allow it to be deflected even a 



little you will lose your reckoning, 
and losing your reckoning you are 
liable to make shipwreck of your 
soul. 

II. Avoid the rocks. 

There are many. We will mention 
only a few. 

(1) Avoid the rock of covetous- 
ness. God has put a text as a light- 
house to warn us off this rock : "Take 
heed and beware of covetousness." - 

(2) Avoid the rock of evil com- 
pany. Many a fine vessel has been 
wrecked on this rock. Here is an- 
other Hght-house if we will heed it: 
"The companion of fools shall be 
destroyed." 

(3) Avoid the rock of irreverence 
for the Sabbath. Not a few have run 
upon that rock and made shipwreck 
of the soul. Here is the light-house: 
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep 
it holy." 

(4) Avoid the rock of spiritual 
procrastination. People know their 
duty; why will they delay in matters 
of the soul? When the Loch Earn 
and the Ville du Havre collided, in 
just twelve minutes the second named 
went down with two hundred and 
twelve souls. How much time had 
they to prepare? It is better, like 
one of these passengers, a young 
Princeton graduate, Hamilton Mur- 
ray, to be ready. Many intend to be- 
come Christians, but delay. Here 
is another divinely erected light- 
house to warn off this rock : "Grieve 
not the Holy Spirit of God." 

Keep your reckoning. Keep off the 
rocks. — H. 

Conversion: Its Means and Tests 
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 
etc. Acts 16:30-34. 
I. Its necessity. 

Think for a moment of some in^ 
evitable things. For example: If I 
go overland to California I must 
scale the Rocky Mountains. If I 
ever get sight of Europe I must 
cross the Atlantic. If I am ever to 
see the light I must have eyes. So 
there are some "musts" in religion; 
Christ used the word "must" fre- 
quently. He applied it to this thought 
of the necessity of conversion ; 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye 
must be born again." There are peo- 
ple who do not like that doctrine. 
We know a woman who left an ortho- 
dox church and joined the Univer- 
salists, saying that her reason for 



158 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



doing so was to get rid of hearing 
about conversion. But Christ made 
it as plain as any teaching. He 
taught regeneration or conversion is 
necessary if we are to enter the King- 
dom of God. The method is mys- 
terious. "The wind bloweth where 
it Hsteth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof but canst not tell whence it 
Cometh or whither it goeth : so is 
everyone that is born of the Spirit." 
We can understand how necessary 
the new birth is when we consider 
our sinful state by nature. We are 
"dead in trespasses and in sin." We 
are not simply sick and able, with a 
httle effort, to cure ourselves. We 
are not entirely well and able to save 
ourselves ; but we are dead and can 
only live by Divine grace placing 
within us and fanning to a flame the 
spark of life. 

II. What this change is. 

It must be considered from two 
sides — the Divine and the human. 

(1) From the Divine side it is 
called regeneration. It is the result 
of an act by a power outside of our- 
selves. It is due to God's choice of 
us. It is due to God's bringing his 
truth to bear upon us. It is due to 
God's working by his Spirit within 
us. It is a new birth, a regeneration 
— beginning to live over again. 

(2) From the human side it is 
spoken of as conversion. Conversion 
is simply turning about. It is walk- 
ing along the road in one direction, 
then turning and walking in the op- 
posite direction. It is changing from 
the life of evil to the life of good. 
It is changing from the doing evil to 
doing good. In the evening the 
Philippian Jailer was most cruelly 
treating Paul and Silas. Before 
morning he was washing their stripes 
and showing them every attention. 
That was a conversion — a turning 
about. Conversion is Tnan's surren- 
der to God. It is "right about face." 
It is, of course, usually the direct re- 
sult of regeneration. 

III. The means of conversion. 
(1) In this case we have first the 

praying and singing of the apostles. 
The prisoners were listening. Con- 
version usually comes about in the 
same way still. It is as some sound 
is heard; such as the praying of a 
body of God's people or their sing- 
ing, or as some one preaches or 
teaches the Word that the Spirit ap- 
plies the truth to those who hear. 



(2) There was, secondly, the shock 
of the earthquake. So is it still. The 
soul is arrested by some sudden cir- 
cumstances — loss of property, severe 
disappointment, a death in the family, 
or something that brings a shock. It 
is when our attention is riveted that 
the Spirit takes hold of us and con- 
version results. 

(3) Faith. 

Faith is the assent of the intellect 
and the consent of the will. It is the 
yielding to Christ as Lord. 

IV. Tests of conversion. 

(1) Rejoicingly hearing God's 
word. A man who has turned to 
the Lord will want to hear all he 
can about him. This was one indi- 
cation of the jailer's conversion. He 
invited the apostles to speak to him 
freely in regard to the way to live. 

(2) An immediate change of life. 
This was noticeable in the jailer, for 
he was transformed at once from a 
cruel jailer to a merciful nurse. "He 
took them the same hour of the night 
and washed their stripes." 

(3) Immediate confession of Christ. 
"And was baptized." He did not 
delay to make it known that he 
hoped for salvation through Christ. 
He did not wish to be a disciple 
secretly. One of the best indications 
of conversion is that a man should 
desire to make an open confession of 
faith in Christ, of love for him and 
a purpose to strive to serve him. 

(4) Helpfulness. "And when he 
had brought them into his house, he 
set meat before them." When people 
begin to feed others it is a good 
sign. When they begin to be help- 
ful to those about them and promote 
the cause of Christ you may be pretty 
sure that they have experienced the 
converting grace of Christ. 

(5) Joy in new life. It says that 
the jailer "rejoiced." Christian joy 
is a good sign of possessing a Chris- 
tian heart. 

(6) The man's home was changed. 
The change reached the conduct of 
his household. A blessing came to 
others besides himself that day. 
This is the way sound conversion af- 
fects the lives of men. We may test 
our ground for hope by this incident 
of the Philippian jailer. — H. 

Inexcusable Idleness: Preparation 
for Revival 
"Why stand ye here all the day 
idle?" Matt. 20:6. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 159 



There is reproof in this question. 
The answer given by the men, "Be- 
cause no man has hired us," did not 
seem to be a complete vindication. 
In any case as we apply the ques- 
tion to workers in Christ's vineyard 
to-day it certainly suggests the 
thought of inexcusable idleness. 
"Why stand ye here all the day idle?" 

I. Why? The vineyard is so 
spacious ! 

The fields are so wide and large. 
There is so much to be done. Lifting 
up our eyes we see the wide fields — 
fields in India, fields in Africa, fields 
in the islands of the sea. Yes, and 
there are even wide unharvested 
fields in our own land, and in com- 
munities where we live. "Go — work 
— to-day — in my vineyard." "Why 
stand ye here all the day idle?" 

II. Why? The Master is so kind! 

He is not a hard task-master, driv- 
ing and forcing his laborers beyond 
their power. He is a good master 
to work for, because, 

(1) He does not expect impossi- 
bilities of us. ^ ^ 

(2) He sympathizes with our dif- 
ficulties. 

(3) He makes good provision for 
us. He feeds us with the best of 
food. He guards us from enemies 
while we work. There is in the 
vineyard a tower with watchmen 
upon its walls, and so we are pro- 
tected in our labors. No master 
could be more kind than he is. No 
master could be more considerate 
for those who are under him. "Why 
stand ye here all the day idle?" 

III. Why? The time for working 
is so short! 

(1) The Master will accept your 
efforts begun even at the eleventh 
hour. Whether the whole day is be- 
fore us or only a part of it, the time 
for earthly labor is short and we 
ought to be up and doing while it 
is called to-day. 

(2) The need of haste. "The 
night Cometh." Knowing the short- 
ness of the time should lead us to 
labor all the more diligently. The 
needlewoman working by her bit of 
candle hastens to finish the work be- 
fore the light burns down to its 
socket. So is the time for working 
short with us all. "Whatsoever thy 
hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might, for there is no work nor 
knowledge, nor device in the grave 
whither thou goest." There is no 



finishing up life's undone work when 
this life is over. 

(3) Even if the work should seem 
irksome there is still comfort in the 
thought that the time is not long. 
Why then be idle? "Why stand ye 
here all the day idle?" 

IV. Why? The reward is so 
liberal ! 

"W^hat is right I will give thee." 
This Master we work for will give 
the fullest possible return. 

(1) There is reward in the very 
act of doing the work. The mere 
sense of being usefully occupied 
brings no little reward to the worker. 

(2) There is reward in the result 
of the work. It is no small part of 
the reward of a Christian worker 
that he is permitted to see souls 
saved. It is a delight something like 
that of a seaman who, escaping from 
a wreck, has the joy of seeing an- 
other man at his side he has been 
enabled to rescue. The mere fact of 
seeing the harvest of souls brings 
rich reward to the worker. 

(3) There is reward in the way of 
active payment when the evening 
comes. "So when the even was come 
the Lord of the vineyard saith unto 
his steward, Call the laborers, and 
give them their hire." He always 
calls us at the close of the day and 
gives us even more than the full re- 
ward. He does not delay. He does 
not reduce the payment. ^ He gives 
more than we have any right co ex- 
pect. "Enter into the joy of thy 
Lord." With such a Master and such 
payment and so much work to be 
done, surely the question may well 
be asked of many of us, "Why stand 
ye here all the day idle?" — H. 

Rescue of Souls 

"And of some have compassion, 
making a difference, and others save 
with fear, pulling them out of the 
fire." Jude 22, 23. 

This is ? wonderful text. Its 
exact translation is a little difficult, 
yet Its general meaning is ver> plain. 
First, it represents a common danger 
— the loss of the soul. Secondly, it 
represents a common duty-^that of 
the rescuing of souls — "pulling them 
out of the fire." Lastly, it represents 
the two strongest appealing motives 
the Gospel presents to control our 
acts, love and fear. 

I. The common danger. It is in- 
dicated by our need of being saved. 



i6o 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



"Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for 
he shall save his people from their 
sins." Had the world not needed 
saving Christ need never have come. 
Some people do not like the Bible 
warnings, yet they are just as much 
love-filled as are the gentlest woo- 
ings. If men are in a burning house 
asleep it is no unkindness to arouse 
them. The real unkindness will be 
to let them sleep. If there is noth- 
ing on the track, why wave the red 
signal? Why have lighthouses if 
there are no rocks? God's message 
is most loving, because it tells both 
the danger and the way of escape. 
Our Master was infinitely kind and 
loving and tender, and yet he did not 
shun to tell men the exact truth in 
regard to their condition. And in 
our Christian work to-day we need 
to learn that if we really long to save 
men we must tell them some dis- 
agreeable truths. "The wages of sin 
is death." "All have sinned and come 
short." But, glad fact, with these 
truths we may also connect other 
truths : "The wages of sin is death, 
but the gift of God is eternal life 
through Jesus Christ, our Lord." 
This suggests : 

II. A common duty. It is that of 
saving men. Some we ; may save 
with compassionate and gentle en- 
treaty; others need startling an- 
nouncement and warning. But in 
whichever way may be necessary the 
great duty is to save them — "pulling 
them out of the fire." The work of 
Christians is rescue work. The world 
sings the praises of Grace Darling 
for her noble rescue of men from the 
wreck. We may all be, and should 
all be, Grace Darlings in the spiritual 
life. It is not enough that we are 
saved, but we must, in turn, set about 
the saving of others. Not the Chris- 
tian clinging with both hands to the 
cross of refuge, but clinging with 
one hand, and with the other lifting 
some one else from the dark waves 
of sin, is the true picture of the 
Christian life. Look up and lift up! 
We consider it inhuman to neglect 
the saving of lives. It is far more 
inhuman to neglect the saving of 
souls. The men in the railway 
wreck who were rescued all turned 
rescuers. When the vessel went 
down the sailors in the life-boat 
picked up all they could find. A 
common duty confronts us as Chris- 
tians. It is to do all in our power 



to rescue the lost. Let us not neglect 
or delay. 

III. The appealing motives. 

(1)_ The first of these is love. In 
a loving way we are to tell men of 
the love of Christ. Love is the mo- 
tive from which we act, and it is, as 
well, the motive to which we appeal. 
Let us try to present to men that 
love of Christ "which passeth knowl- 
edge." It is broad enough to reach 
the width of the world. It is deep 
enough to reach down to the most 
degraded. It is long enough to last 
through all time, and high enough to 
lift us up to Heaven. Surely it must 
be a hard heart we cannot reach with 
that appeal, — the love of Christ. 
When we really make plain to people 
the fact that God loves them we will 
find them crowding into the kingdom. 

(2) But fear is a motive also. 
Our fear that men will be lost moves 
us. And men that are hardened in 
sin sometimes respond only to the 
motive of fear. It may require a 
rude awakening when a man is in 
deep sleep and his house afire. It 
may require a ^ sharp cry when the 
stumbling man is upon the very brink 
of the precipice. If gentle pleas will 
not move men, they must be saved 
with fear. Tell of the certainty 'of 
death, the permanency of character, 
the certainty of judgment. Appeal 
to fear. Warnings are as loving as 
wooings are. Let us use well-adapted 
means, — every means in order that 
souls may be saved. — H. 

Cure for Backsliders 

"Return, thou backsliding Israel, 
saith the Lord; and I will not cause 
mine anger to fall upon you." Jer. 
3:12. 

Riding along with a Christian 
friend, not long since, he confided to 
us the fact that he was not happy. 
He himself knew the reason, and 
frankly confessed it. He explained 
that formerly he had kept up regu- 
lar habits of prayer and Bible study, 
that he had been a regular attendant 
at the weekly prayer-meetings of the 
church and enjoyed them, that he was 
always in his place on the Sabbath, 
but that by and by, gradually he be- 
gan to neglect these things, and con- 
sequently had grown more and more 
cold and lifeless spiritually, increas- 
ingly cheerless and hopeless until 
now he was downright and thor- 
oughly unhappy. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES i6i 



How many of us, if the truth were 
known, would be found in the same 
condition ? 

I. A backslidden condition is al- 
ways an unhappy condition. There 
is a homesickness of soul more or 
less felt by every backslidden Chris- 
tian. Oftentimes the unhappiness is 
so plain as to be noticeable to others. 
There is a loss of hopefulness and 
good cheer, a certain undefined weary 
and wistful look which seems to say : 

"Where is the blessedness I knew 
When first I found the Lord?'* 

The truth is that the soul is sick 
— homesick. Like a bird caged away 
from its native forest, it yearns for 
that Hfe for which it was meant by 
the Creator. There is such a thing 
as being a little too religious to enjoy 
sin and yet too sinful to enjoy re- 
ligion. A backslidden Christian 
usually keeps up the forms of re- 
ligious services; but he has no heart 
or pleasure in them. He has the 
duties of religion without its delights. 
The backslidden state is an unhappy 
state. It is a state like that of a 
wanderer away from home. It is 
with each as with the prodigal in the 
far country. 

II. The backslidden condition^ is 
one which presents an immediate 
duty. There is but one cure for this 
condition of spiritual ill health. 
There is a cure, and it is a very 
plain and simple one, and very sure. 
Let an illustration point it out,^ for 
it is much like that method in science 
known as the curing of sick pearls. 
What, do pearls get sick? Yes, it 
seems that these beautiful gems pine 
and lose their color at times, and can 
be restored to health only by a pro- 
longed visit to their ocean home. At 
the foot of a cliff under the windows 
of the castle of Mirimar, formerly 
the residence of the Mexican Em- 
peror Maximilian, at the depth of 
eighty feet below the surface of the 
Adriatic, is a kind of cage fashioned 
by divers in the face of the rock. In 
that cage are some of the most mag- 
nificent pearls in existence. They 
belong to the Archduchess Rainer. 
Having been left unworn for a long 
time, the gems lost their color and 
became "sick." The experts were 
unanimous in declaring that the only 
means by which they could be re- 
stored to their original brilliancy 



was by submitting them to a pro- 
longed immersion in the depths of 
the sea. They have been lying there 
for a number of years, and are grad- 
ually but surely regaining their for- 
mer unrivalled oriency. 

Back into the communion with 
God ; back to our Bibles ; back to the 
"Christian's native air" of prayer ; 
back to "first principles," and "first 
love," and "first works," back to re- 
newed immersion in these, and only 
so, can we as backslidden Christians, 
like the pearl, regain our former 
beauty and radiancy and usefulness 
in the world. 

"Return! Return!" If we are 
conscious of having backslidden even 
the least, let us delay not to make 
instant return to the Shepherd and 
Bishop of our souls, and to renewed 
engagement in duty. — H. 

Advantages of Seeking the Lord 

"They that seek the Lord shall not 
want any good thing." Ps, 34 : 10. 

This Psalm has been called "The 
Good Man's Song of Triumph." 
Recognizing that God knows best 
what is really "good" for us, here is 
assurance that those who "seek the 
Lord," 

I. Shall not want any good thing 
connected with their salvation and 
acceptance with God. 

They have assurance oi pardon, 
adoption as children, justification, 
comfort, and help from the Holy 
Spirit. 

II. Shall not want any good thing 
necessary for their enjoyment, pro- 
tection or care. 

They will be provided with needed 
blessings — defended — delivered — 
guarded — kept. 

III. Shall not want any good thing 
to comfort them in darkness and 
trouble. Will be given God's pres- 
ence — Word — love — sympathy — help. 

IV. They shall not want any good 
thing to support in death or secure 
safe arrival in heaven. (See Psalm 
23.) 

There is the greatest possible pres- 
ent and eternal advantage in seeking 
and serving the Lord. — H. 

Love for Our Unseen Saviour 

"Whom having not seen ye love." 
1 Peter 1:8. 

The Christian life springs out of a 
personal faith in and love for the 
unseen Christ. The apostle who 



1 62 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



wrote this sentence describes a state 
of mind and heart existing among 
the scattered Christians throughout 
Asia Minor. Although he had him- 
self seen the Saviour of whom he 
spoke, he affirms indirectly that sight 
of Jesus was not necessary either to 
faith or love. They had never seen 
him, and yet they loved him and re- 
joiced in him with a "joy unspeak- 
able and full of glory." He undoubt- 
edly had in mind our Lord's saying 
to Thomas, which he also heard: 
"Thomas, because thou hast seen me 
thou hast beHeved; blessed are they 
that have not seen, yet have be- 
lieved." These scattered Christians 
were in the line of that blessing pro- 
nounced upon them beforehand by 
the risen Lord. 

I. The nature of this love. 

(1) It is, as we have said, a per- 
sonal attachment to our unseen Lord. 
It is not the accepting of Christianity 
as a system. It is not enough that 
we believe the record concerning 
Christ. It is not enough that we are 
members of his Church. The real 
question is. How do we stand related 
to Christ? Do we love him? Is he 
dear to us? Does he become Hus- 
band, Brother, Friend? We ought to 
be able to say, "We love him because 
he first loved us." We ought to be 
able to join with Paul, who ex- 
claimed, "Who loved me and gave 
himself for me." 

(2) "But," says some one, "can 
we love an unseen Christ?" There 
are some who think such love im- 
possible. They say it is unreasonable 
to expect to love a person we have 
never seen. But this is a mistake. 
Even among friends such love exists. 
We know of a Brooklyn lady who 
has for years been in correspondence 
with a young Japanese girl, and both, 
though separated by thousands of 
miles, and though they never saw 
each other, and never expect to see 
each other in this world, have, 
through their letters, become ac- 
quainted, and formed a very warm 
attachment for each other. This has 
come about entirely by correspon- 
dence. No one would be unimpressed 
by the natural, spontaneous and un- 
studied expression of this attach- 
ment on the part of the Japanese girl, 
showing unmistakably that her letters 
come from her heart and that she has 
a sincere and deep affection for her 
unseen friend in this country. Here 



we have a beautiful example of af- 
fection toward an unseen human 
friend. If we can believe in the 
existence of an earthly friend and 
that that friend is worthy of tender 
and grateful affection, as we certainly 
can, where is the difficulty in be- 
lieving in the existence of our 
heavenly Frien ', who is Christ the 
Lord, who once bore our sins in his 
own body on the tree and loves us 
with an everlasting love? 

We know of an officer in one of 
our churches who corresponded with 
a young colored girl in a Southern 
school, and became as interested in 
her and as warmly attached as he 
doubtless would have been had he 
met her face to face. The love of 
the blind is a strong love, though all 
their friends are unseen. It is an 
added delight to think of our re- 
ligion as a personal love for the un- 
seen Saviour. 

II. What are some of the signs 
of this love? 

(1) One of the earliest is a deed 
of solemn dedication. First, some- 
where in private, in the presence of 
God alone, these vows are made. It 
is something personal and private 
which has to do only with God and 
one's self. But very soon there fol- 
lows a public dedication. The order 
is first to accept God and then to 
avow God. Joseph of Arimathea was 
not long "a disciple secretly." Like 
with him, so with us ; soon a time 
of testing will come, and when the 
time comes we must openly confess 
Christ as our Lord. 

(2) Another sign is carefulness 
not to^ offend or grieve him. This 
same is a sign of an earthly love. 
We have reason to question our love 
for a friend if we are not watchful 
lest we wound him. We may well 
question our love for Christ if we 
carelessly grieve him. 

(3) A further sign is a glad and 
willing obedience to his command- 
ment. If we love we will gladly 
obey. His commandments will not 
seem hard to keep. 

(4) Another sign is a readiness to 
defend him against his foes. Loyalty 
leads us to stand up for a human 
friend when he is unkindly assailed. 
Loyalty to Christ will make us strong 
in defence of him and his honor. 

(5) Still another sign is a con- 
stant desire to promote his cause. 
We may test ourselves by these, 



i 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 163 



though there are many other ways 
of showing love. — H. 

Continuing 

I. In the love of Christ. John 
15 : 9. 

II. In the Word of Christ. John 
8:31. 

III. In the grace of God. Acts 
13 : 43. 

IV. In the faith. Acts 14:22: 2 
Tim. 4:2, 6-8. 

V. In the things learned. 2 Tim. 
3 : 14-15. 

The Joy of Religion 

"Rejoice evermore." 1 Thess. 
5 : 16. 

Religion is not conducive to melan- 
choly. 

(1) It leaves to the Christian all 
the sources of pleasure which can 
be enjoyed without sin. 

(2) It frees the Christian from the 
evils that hinder others from enjoy- 
ing the common sources of pleasure. 

(3) It enjoins on the Christian no 
duty which is not a source of 
pleasure. 

(4) It confers on the Christian 
new pleasures, of the purest and 
loftiest kind. ~ 

Christ the Door 

"I am the door; by me if any 
man enter in, he shall be saved, and 
shall go in and out, and find pasture." 
John 10:9. 

I. The figurative description of 
Christ. 

(1) He is the only medium of ad- 
mission to the blessings of the Gos- 
pel. 

(2) He is the only medium of ad- 
mission to the communion of the 
Church. 

(3) He is the only medium of ad- 
mission to the happiness of heaven. 

II. The privileges of Christians. 

(1) Safety. 

(2) Liberty. 

I (3) Provision. 

The Two Roads 

I. Two gates— the wide and the 
strait. Matt. 7 : 13. 

II. Two roads— the broad and the 
narrow. Matt. 7 : 14. 

III. Two classes — the many and 
the few. Matt. 7 : 14. 

IV. Two destinies — destruction 
and life. Matt, 7 : 14. 



, No middle path, no third class, no 
intermediate destiny. 

Soul Healing 

"Wilt thou be made whole?" John 
5 : o. 

Mioral disease is incurable by hu- 
man power. It bids defiance to 
medical skill, and resists all human 
effort. Men in all ages and climes 
have experimented in this particular, 
and invariably have all their efforts 
resulted in failures. Many have been 
the efforts, made by the suggestions 
01 the wicked one, to cure the malady 
of sin, but all have been ineffectual. 

God has graciously provided a 
remedy for moral disease. He sent 
his only begotten Son into the world, 
who, through the sacrifice of himself 
upon the cross, opened a fountain 
for sin and uncleanness. In this 
fountain, we have our spiritual 
Bethesda for the healing of the soul. 

I. Wilt thou be made whole ? You 
are so deeply fallen, so thoroughly 
diseased, that you cannot heal your- 
Sf/f • The redeemed in heaven ascribe 
all the praise of their salvation to 
Jesus Christ. 

II. Wilt thou be made whole? 
You must be willing to be made 
whole. God will not save you with- 
out a willingness on your part. You 
are a moral agent. 

III. Wilt thou be made whole? 
This is an eminently personal ques- 
tion. We address ourselves to you. 
Wilt thou be made whole? Every 
consideration urges you to act. 

Wilt thou be made whole now? 
Now is the accepted time, and to- 
day is the day of salvation. To- 
morrow may be too late. The foun- 
tain of healing still lies open. Act 
now. "My Spirit shall not always 
strive with man."— Rev. Z. Horn- 

BERGER. 

Christ's I'resent Work for His 
People 

I. He saves them. Rom. 5 : 10. 
II- He appears for them. Heb. 

III. He makes intercession. Rom. 
8:34. 
ly. He keeps them. Jnde 24. 

V. He cleanses them. Eph. 5:26. 

VI. He restores them. Psa. 23 : 2. 

VII. He leads them. John 10 : 4 



1 64 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Continuing ; 

I. Continue in the grace of God. 
Acts 13 : 43. . , . 

II. Continue in the faith. Acts 
14:22; 2 Tim. 3:14. 

III. Continue in the things learned. 
1 Tim. 3 : 14. 

IV. Continue in the love of Christ. 
John 15 : 9. ^ ^ 

V. Continue in prayer. Col. 4:2; 
Luke 18:1. 

The Prodigal Son 

Luke 15:11-24. 

(1) His willfulness. "Father, give 
me the portion." 

(2) His wandering. "And took 
his journey." 

(3) His waste. "And there wasted 
his substance." 

(4) His want. "And he began to 
be in want." 

(5) His wickedness. "Joined him- 
self to a citizen," 

(6) His wisdom. "When he came 
to himself." 

(7) His welcome. "But when he 
was a great way off." — Rev. C. Ed- 
wards. 

Three Conditions of Soul 

Psalm 6Z. 

I. My soul thirsteth — desire. V. 8. 

II. My soul shall be satisfied — de- 
cision. V. 15. 

III. My soul followeth hard— de- 
votion. V. 24. 

The Wisest Work in the World: 
Preparation for Revival 

"He that winneth souls is wise." 
Prov. 11:30. 

Some one inquired of Dr. Lyman 
Beecher in his old age, "Doctor, you 
know many things, but what do you 
think the main thing." The sturdy 
old hero of forty revivals answered, 
"It is not theology; it is not contro- 
versy; it is saving souls." 

Truer words were never uttered. 
They are good words for us to listen 
to in these days ; and still more es- 
pecially at this opportune season of 
the year. For where is the true- 
hearted Christian who will deny that 
Dr. Beecher was right, and that sav- 
ing souls is indeed the wisest work 
in the world. 

I. On God's own authority we can 
say that "he that winneth souls is 
wise." It is a wise thing to do and 
wise men do it. Whatever Our oc- 
cupation in life, whether merchant or 



mechanic, physician or farmer, we 
have but one business in the world, 
that which was Paul's, that which 
was Christ's, the business of saving 
men. True, Paul had his trade and 
worked at it; but it did not fill his 
heart and head and hands. When he 
said, "This one thing I do," the busi- 
ness he referred to was not tent- 
making but soul-saving. While the 
first was important, the second was 
the "main thing." 

So we are taught in God's Word 
that it is the mission of every one 
who knows and loves the Saviour to 
win others to his service. "Go 
work;" "Go preach;" "Go teach;" 
"Let him that heareth say. Come." 
These are the watchwords. Have 
you heard? Then say "Come." 
There is no disciple of Christ, no 
matter how feeble, no matter how 
lowly, no matter how young, who 
ought not distinctly to propose it to 
himself as an aim never to be lost 
sight of, that he will lead other souls 
to the foot of the Cross. 

II. The work we are to do is 
rescue work. 

It is not enough for any Chris- 
tian simply that he is saved; he 
must, in turn, be striving also to 
save others. Mr. Moody tells us 'of 
one day seeing a steel engraving 
which pleased him very much. He 
says, "I thought it was the finest 
thing I had ever seen, at the time, 
and I bought it." It was the picture 
of a woman coming out of the water 
and clinging with both hands to the 
Cross of Refuge. "But afterwards," 
he goes on to say, "I saw another 
picture that spoiled this one for me 
entirely — it was so much more lovely. 
It was a picture of a person coming 
out of the dark waters with one arm 
clinging to the Cross, but with the 
other she was lifting some one else 
out of the waves." 

Yes, "saved" is good, but we will 
all agree that "saved and saving" is 
a far better and nobler picture of 
true Christian life. Saved and sav- 
ing! Keeping a firm hold upon the 
Cross ourselves, but striving ever to 
lift other souls from the dark bil- 
lows of sin that beat on the danger- 
ous coast of eternity. Poor, weak 
and feeble men and women that we 
are, God will use us if we are will- 
ing. He has sent no angels to make 
known and offer his Gospel. So far 
as we can see, it is God's plan to 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 165 



save the world through man's efforts 
for men. To be sure we cannot con- 
vert men, but telling them the Gos- 
pel and persuading them to accept it 
is our work; conversion is God's 
work; but if we do our part God 
will do his. 

III. The opportunities are many. 

What our church needs is that life- 
saving, vitalizing hre of God's Holy 
Spirit which will arouse every indi- 
vidual Christian to earnest, conse- 
crated personal work. ''Every 
Church a Band of Missionaries," is 
the title of a tract. We have not read 
the tract, but the title is very sug- 
gestive. A good deal has been said 
of late about the importance of hav- 
ing able ministers in our pulpits, and 
no doubt it is important. But would 
it not be well to call the attention of 
the members of our churches to the 
fact that it is even more important 
that they should be able workers, 
than that they should have able pas- 
tors ; especially such as fill the popu- 
lar idea of men unusually gifted as 
public speakers and sermonizers? 
Only as our churches become bands 
of "able workers," in fact, only as 
the rank and file of our Christian 
membership become enlisted in active 
service for Christ, will his Kingdom 
advance as it ought. "Give me," ex- 
claimed Wesley, "one hundred men 
who fear nothing but God, hate noth- 
ing but sin, and are determined to 
know nothing among men but Christ 
and him crucified, and I will set the 
world on fire." This at least we 
know, that, in the existing churches 
of to-day, if every hundred mem- 
bers were a hundred such workers, 
burning with the fire of a zeal kin- 
dled by Christ's love, we might ex- 
claim, "The Kingdom of God is at 
hand." Let us be up and doing. It 
is God's most urgent command, "Go 
work to-day in my vineyard." God 
will use us. Men are the messengers. 
Reward is sure, present and eternal. 
"He that winneth souls is wise." 
Wise! It is the greatest, grandest, 
wisest work in the world ; for "they 
that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament, and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the 
stars for ever and ever." — H. 

God Is Love 

"God is love." 1 John 4:16. 

Sweet and precious fact is it that 
God is love. "God is love, and God 



loves me" — this is enough to make 
any soul shout aloud for joy. 

I. Notice, that this love of his is 
a communicating" love. His love is 
not a dumb or silent thing. Love 
seeks expression ; sc is it with God's 
love. It is a speaking love. He ex- 
presses himself to us in his works. 
"The heavens declare his glory and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, and 
night unto night showeth knowledge. 
There is no speech nor language 
where their voice is not heard." He 
expresses himself to us by the inner 
workings of conscience and of his 
Spirit. But he expresses himself es- 
pecially through his Word, which is 
a letter — a series of letters, of love 
to us. None of us can overestimate 
the importance of the fact that our 
God is not a silent God. 

II. His is a guiding and wisely 
controlHng love. We are astray, but 
he does not leave us to wander. We 
come to the "parting of the ways" 
and know not which road to take, 
and he directs us. We lack wisdom 
and he teaches us. We cannot make 
plans for ourselves and he makes 
plans for us. We cannot understand 
the changing scenes and intricacies 
of life, but he does understand and 
"makes all things work together for 
our good." He is our all-skilled 
Pilot. Let us not meddle with the 
chart or compass, but do our duty 
in our places, and let him guide. He 
knows every rock that endangers, 
every reef that rises in the way. He 
knows the channel of safety, too, and 
by and by, if we let him have his 
way with us, will bring us into our 
desired haven. 

III. His is a help rendering love. 
We are weak. Alone we are sure to 
fail. But he does not let us fail. 
He puts grace into our hearts and 
strength into our souls. Temptation 
comes and he fortifies us against it. 
Trials come and he makes his grace 
sufficient for us. Testing times come 
and he says, "Fear not; I will help 
thee : yea, I will strengthen thee ; yea, 
I will uphold thee with the right 
hand of my righteousness." 

IV. His love is an unchanging love. 
It is related that a certain man placed 
on one of his buildings a weather- 
vane, upon which were inscribed the 
words, "God is love." Some one 
criticized him, saying, "Yoii have 
placed an immutable truth on a very 



i66 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



changeable thing." "No, it is all 
right/' he replied, "it means that God 
is love whichever way the wind 
blows." Yes, it is a glad fact that 
his is a love that can be depended 
on in every condition of circumstance 
of hfe. 

What blessed results would grow 
out of the fact if everywhere, the 
world over, we could get men to 
realize that God is love. It would 
soften the hearts of all the sinning. 
It would cause to yield all who are 
resisting. It would cheer the lonely, 
comfort the sorrowing and fill all 
with joy and peace in believing. Let 
us try to get into our own minds 
and the minds of others a definite 
conception of this supreme fact, that 
God is love. — H. 

^ Does Godliness Pay? 

"Godliness is profitable," etc. 1 
Tim. 4:8. 

Religion is an appeal to common 
sense. It comes to us and asks our 
acceptance of it on the grounds of 
enlightened self-interest. It asks it 
on other grounds, and higher 
grounds, but it asks it on this ground, 
too. Will it pay? Christ endorsed 
that way of looking at it when he 
said: "What shall it profit a man," 
etc. In one sense, religion is busi- 
ness. It asks us to get our account 
books, to study the prices current, to 
question on the probabilities of profit 
and loss and decide whether it will 
pay us to purchase "the pearl of great 
price." It asks us to use the same 
shrewdness we would in temporal in- 
vestments. Does it pay to invest in 
religion? 

I. First let us consider this ques- 
tion from the standpoint of the life 
that now is. Is the text true? Is 
godliness profitable for the present? 

(1) How is it in this life about 
sin? Does sin pay? Five years ago 
a man paid ten cents for a cup of 
strong drink. It seemed pleasant. 
He only spent a few cents for a 
whole night's enjoyment. That 
seemed cheap and profitable. Was it? 
Look at him now, a poor, wretched, 
ragged outcast. His sins have cost 
him health, happiness, character, love, 
a father's tears, a mother's broken 
heart, and all hope for the future. 
Did it pay? "The way of the trans- 
gressor is hard." It is always so, 
and in regard to all kinds of sin. 
If there is any one thing in all God's 



universe that does not pay and never 
can be made to pay it is sin. 

(2) But how is it for this life 
about godHness. Does it pay? In- 
deed does anything pay so well? 

(a) It pays from a business stand- 
point. Godliness makes a man hon- 
est, and it is even a maxim of 
worldly success that "honesty is the 
best policy." Godliness makes a man 
industrious and earnest. And these 
are two of the highest qualities for 
temporal advancement. Godliness 
makes a man firm and decided. It 
gives him qualities that enable him 
to say yes when he ought to say yes, 
and stick to it, and say no when he 
ought to say no, and mean it. Sim- 
ply from the standpoint of worldly 
success godliness pays. As a rule 
Christian homes are more comforta- 
ble than those that are not Christian ; 
children are better fed, better trained, 
and love surrounded. "I have been 
young and now am old, yet have not 
I seen the righteous forsaken nor his 
seed begging bread." 

(b) It pays in peace of mind. 
"My peace give I unto you." 

(c) It pays in positive joy. "That 
your joy may be full." Ask any 
Christian which part of his life con- 
tained more joy, before he became a 
Christian or after. 

(d) It pays in hope. What is life 
without hope ? It is like sailing with- 
out any harbor in view. It is drift- 
ing, and drifting is the most unhappy 
kind of life. 

II. Secondly, let us consider the 
question from the standpoint of the 
life that is to come. 

(1) How is it in the life that is 
to come with those who follow sin? 
Suppose there were no punishment 
for sin except its own punishment 
in the law of the solidification of 
character ; were that not punishment, 
indeed ? But we are taught to believe 
that there is other punishment for 
sin. There is the gnawing of re- 
morse. There is the conscious degra- 
dation of finding ourselves fitted only 
for association with evil. There is 
the sense of God's displeasure. 
These are enough, let alone the pos- 
sibility of direct inflictions of justice 
on account of the violations of divine 
law. 

(2) How is it about the Hfe that 
is to come for the godly? Consider 
only the meaning of these three 
words, God, Heaven, Eternity. — H. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 167 



^ Security of Believers: Post Revival 

"And we know that all things work 
together for good for them that love 
God." Rom. 8:28. 

It is one of the luxuries of Chris- 
tian faith to believe that all things 
are coming out right. There is far 
too widespread a feeling among men 
that things will come out wrong. 
But these are pessimists, and Chris- 
tians should be optimists. To know 
that the great tides of life are work- 
ing toward God gives us a sense of 
security and much spiritual enjoy- 
ment. 

The words of this text give us : 

I. Confidence that the machinery 
of God's control is managed safely. 
"All things work together." Provi- 
dential events are like the cogs of 
a machine which so fit that the de- 
sired result is reached. They tell 
us that in Geneva, Switzerland, is a 
watch factory, the largest in the 
world, employing three thousand per- 
sons. One will work on one part, 
and another on another part, but 
when from every department of the 
factory the pieces are put together 
the result is a perfect time-piece. So 
we may know that God is controlling 
and guiding our lives, and all things, 
to bring out a perfect result. 

II. Assurance of present blessing. 
The hope that we have is not simply 
that good will come to us by and 
by, but this providential control of 
God is bringing our highest present 
good. It is certainly a comfort to 
go about with the consciousness that 
all things are, day by day, working 
for our good. 

III. Self-possession. We have 
real bravery in going forward in duty 
when we know that God is over- 
reaching our lives. 

IV. Enjoyment of our work. It 
is not work, but worry, that kills. 
Some one has asked the question: 
"Why is it that a little child can run 
about from morning until night with- 
out ever seeming to get tired? If 
sleep gets him at all, it has to catch 
him on the fly?" But the answer 
is that the child does its work and 
lets the father take the worry. If 
we would live life in that way, we 
would find much more enjoyment and 
our work would not weary. Let us 
do the work and let our Heavenly 
Father take the worry. 

V. Courage to bear hardships. If 
we only understood the meaning of 



God's dealings with us we would 
never complain. The block of mar- 
ble may not understand why it must 
be chipped and chiseled and polished, 
but the finished figure shows the wis- 
dom of the artist. When we are 
conscious that God is controlling our 
lives and making all things work to- 
gether for good, we bear the disci- 
pHne rejoicing in the fact that our 
light afflictions which are but for a 
moment will work out for us a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory. 

VI. Makes us cheerful Christians. 
As we view history we have the con- 
sciousness that God is controlling and 
is bringing about his good will. As 
we look upon our own lives we have 
the same cheerful hope that he is 
making all things work together for 
our good, and this fills us with de- 
light and good cheer. 

Let us, like Paul, maintain this be- 
lief as a positive conviction. "We 
know." We know that all things 
work together for good. As a parent 
you send 3rour child to school. The 
child sees no good that can come 
of it. You do. Some of life's tasks 
are done in tears, but God makes 
them work out our eternal good. 

Let us be convinced as Paul that 
all things "work together" for good. 
This means our poverty as well as 
our prosperity. This means our 
losses as well as our gains. To be 
sure, we should never forget that 
this is a conditional promise. It does 
not say that all things work together 
for good for everybody, but all things 
work together for good "for them 
that love God."— H. 

Christ*s Redeeming Love 

"In whom we have redemption 
through his blood, the forgiveness 
of sins according to the riches of his 
grace." Eph. 1 : 7. 

Redemption is the most glorious 
work of God. It is greater than his 
work of creation. Paul delighted to 
dwell upon this theme. The reason 
was that he himself had experienced 
Christ's redeeming love. He had 
been redeemed from the error of 
his ways, from the curse and bondage 
of the law, washed in Christ's blood, 
endowed with his Spirit and made 
an Apostle of the cross — well might 
he glory in his Redeemer. 

To redeem means to buy back, to 
pay the ransom price. This is what 



i68 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Christ did for us when we were cap- 
tive under sin. 

I. First, consider the necessity for 
our redemption. The sinner is a 
captive. 

(1) To sin. "Jesus answered them : 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, who- 
soever committeth sin is the servant 
of sin." (John 8: 34). We feel that 
bondage. We know that sin rules 
and reigns within us. 

(2) To Satan. Paul speaks of 
sinners as, through Christ, "recov- 
ering themselves out of the snare 
of the devil, who are taken captive 
by him at his will." (2 Tim. 11 : 26.) 

(3) Under the law. We have 
broken the law of God, and for this 
reason "the Scripture hath concluded 
all under sin.'' (Gal. 3:2.) ^ The 
literal meaning is, "shut up in prison." 
The idea being that justice has put 
us under arrest for violating the law. 

An imprisoned captive is in a state 
of darkness. "Having their under- 
standing darkened." (Eph. 4 : 18.) 

A captive is bound in fetters. So 
are sinners "in the gall of bitterness 
and the bonds of iniquity." 

The captive is an exile, away from 
his father's house and fellowship. 

The captive is in a state of wretch- 
edness and misery, "poor and miser- 
able and blind and naked." Oh, how 
great is our need of redemption ! 

II. But, thanks be to God, he does 
not leave us in this condition but 
provides for our redemption. Let us 
think, then, secondly, of the agent 
of our redemption. "In whom we 
have redemption." The person is 
Christ, our Saviour. "For even the 
Son of Man came not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister, and to 
give his life a ransom for many." 
"He offered himself through the eter- 
nal Spirit without spot unto God." 
"Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for 
he shall save his people from their 
sins." "He suffered for sins, the just 
for the unjust, that he might bring 
us to God." 

III. The means of redemption. It 
is stated : "In whom we have redemp- 
tion through his blood." "We are 
not redeemed with corruptible things, 
as silver and gold . . . but with the 
precious blood of Christ." Christ 
voluntarily took our place. He stood 
charged with our sins and paid the 
penalty with his blood. Amazing 
love ! 

IV. The blessed fruits of redeem- 



ing love : "Even the forgiveness of 
sins." "In whom we have redemp- 
tion through his blood, the forgive- 
ness of sins, according to the riches 
of his grace." Grace is unmerited 
favor, and his forgiveness is accord- 
ing to his abounding favor, without 
limit by our demerit. He casts our 
sins behind his back. He blots them 
out of the book of his remembrance. 
He sinks them into the depths of the 
sea — the deepest places, where they 
never can be reached or brought up 
again to face us. He forgives "ac- 
cording to the riches of his grace." 

A king once offered a subject a 
very munificent present for some 
service. The subject said: "This is 
too much for me to receive." The 
king replied : "But it is not too much 
for me to give." He was rich and 
gave according to his ability to give. 
God is very rich and very loving and 
when he gives it is "according to the 
riches of his grace." 

Let us receive and estimate at their 
true worth God's gifts of redemp- 
tion, love and forgiveness of our sins, 
knowing that out of this manifesta- 
tion of his grace there comes to us 
also justification, peace, adoption, 
hope and Heaven. — H. 

The Peace Christ Gives 

"My peace give I unto you." John 
16:33. 

This is one of Christ's sweetest 
assurances to his followers — that he 
will give us peace. And it is a 
special kind or quality of peace he 
promises. The emphasis is upon the 
word "My." "My peace I give unto 
you." The peace is the same deep, 
abiding, and blessed peace he en- 
joyed. 

It was not the peace of affluence. 
Some of us think we would have 
peace if we had in our possession 
all the_ things we long for. We 
feel quite sure that if we had wealth 
and the things wealth can purchase 
we would have peace. But none of 
these things did Christ have. His 
peace was not founded on affluence. 
And affluence would never give us 
peace. 

Neither was his the peace of tran- 
quillity. Some of us are so hurried 
in our lives, so pressed with duties 
that we long for the peace of tran- 
quillity. But Christ had not this. 
He was hurried and pressed upon, 
opposed by enemies, appealed to by 






TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 169 



friends. His was the very opposite 
to a tranquil life. The peace he gives, 
then, is not the peace of tranquillity. 

Neither was his peace the peace 
of congenial companionship. On the 
contrary, he was solitary. Few un- 
derstood him or were able to enter 
into sympathy with him and his 
plans. His was not the peace of 
congenial companionship and friend- 
ship. Therefore, that is not the kind 
of peace he promises his followers. 

The peace Christ had and the peace 
he gives is something different from 
what the world calls peace. It is 
something deeper and worthier, too. 

What, then, is the peace he gives? 

I. It is peace of conscience. Sin 
is war. Sin is strife. Sin puts dis- 
cord into our lives. Conscious^ of 
sin, we cannot be at peace. Christ's 
peace was the peace of sinlessness. 
In the midst of all his press of work 
and the disturbances that surrounded 
him he had the peace of conscious 
integrity, of oneness with his Father 
— the peace of sinlessness. This is 
one feature of the peace he gives us 
— the peace of pardon, the peace of 
justification. Through our acceptance 
of his righteousness he gives us the 
peace of sinlessness. He m.akes us 
free from sin and to enjoy the deep 
and abiding peace of one just before 
God. 

II. He gives us peace of character. 
He had the peace of a sound, stable, 
right centered character where there 
was no internal discord or struggle. 
His character had unity, harmony of 
purpose, was not disturbed by fickle- 
ness or changefulness. It is a great 
thing to possess a unified character. 
We do not easily attain it. We ap- 
prove the right, but do the wrong. 
We are all Dr. Jekyls and Mr. 
Hydes. We are dual characters, torn 
by conflict within. But Christ's peace 
was that of confirmed character, 
stable, sound, unified. This is the 
peace he will give us and does give 
us as we accept it. This is one of 
his greatest gifts. 

III. He gives the peace of abid- 
ing trustfulness. This peace also 
Christ had. How often we hear him 
exclaiming, "My Father," and show- 
ing the utmost confidence in him. 
He never seemed to be the least 
disturbed, but believed that God's 
will was always good. He gives us 
this peace so we can truly exclaim : 
'T worship thee, sweet will of God." 



"Thy will is my peace." In the 
midst of afflictions and trials and 
troubles we have, through Christ, the 
peace of abiding trust in God. 

IV. Lastly, notice that this peace 
he gives us is the source of power. 
Without peace there is no power, 
when the mind and heart are dis- 
turbed and torn with the conscious- 
ness of sin, doubleness of character 
and the fear of distrust, we are de- 
void of power; our hands are en- 
feebled, our hearts are distracted, our 
energy is dissipated. But when we 
have peace, the peace Christ gives, 
we are "free to serve," we have cour- 
age for undertaking and energy with 
which to bring success. Let us ac- 
cept of Christ's peace, deep, continu- 
ous, abiding peace. Most desirable 
of gifts is it, and we can have it if 
y/e will accept it. — ^H. 

A Birthright Bargained Away 

"Looking diligently lest any man 
fail of the grace of God," etc. Heb. 
12:15-17. 

A birthright bargained away I 
This was the extreme folly of Esau. 
We doubt if ever, since the world 
began, there was struck so thought- 
less, so foolish, so insane a bargain. 
Think of it! For one short mo- 
ment's gratification he signed away 
his inheritance, he stepped out of 
the royal line ; as with a single stroke 
of the pen he struck his name off 
the roll of the honorable and the 
great, only to have it head the long 
list of fools who have bartered away 
life's spiritual possibiHties to gratify 
the fleeting pleasures of the flesh. In 
another place it is recorded : "Thus 
Esau despised his birthright." It is 
a terrible word, "despised," but no 
milder one would meet the case. 

God intended this account as a 
perpetual warning to us all. We 
must recognize that this incident of 
Esau carries with it some very 
practical lessons. One of them, to 
which we give our first attention, is 
this : 

I. That in all spiritual things men 
barter away their birthright when- 
ever they sacrifice the future to the 
present. How many people there 
are who seem to Hve under the ab- 
solute dominion of the present. It 
is the most common cause of pov- 
erty. It is the thing back of all we 
speak of as "hand-to-mouth living." 
It is the mother of ignorance. It is 



170 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



the source of all habits of indolence 
and intemperance and impurity. As 
against the interest? of religion it is 
the very essence of the worldly spirit ; 
it is not so much a spirit of down- 
right wickedness as of, Esau-like, 
weakly yielding to the hunger for 
mere temporary gratification. Esau 
saw before him the possibility of im- 
mediate enjoyment. His future in- 
terests were distant and vague and 
shadowy. And it was as though he 
said, "Let the future take care of 
itself ; *a bird in the hand is worth 
two in the bush' ; I am going to take 
these dainty morsels while I can get 
them." Precisely so are men acting 
to-day, and, like Esau, in doing so 
they are playing the fool. 

II. This brings us to notice a sec- 
ond, though kindred thought, namely 
that when any one parts with his 
birthright he makes a woefully bad 
bargain. There are some men of so 
little business tact that they always 
get cheated in a bargain. It would 
be better for them to keep what they 
already have and never engage in 
trade. So do men point with scorn 
at this famous transaction when 
Esau for one morsel of meat sold 
his birthright ; and yet there are mul- 
titudes of people everywhere who are 
making far more shocking and ridicu- 
lous bargains. 

(1) Men barter their birthright 
for pleasure. Examples of this we 
see every day. 

(2) Men barter their birthright 
too, for fame. Henry of Navarre 
made a choice between the crown 
of France and his soul, — between 
fame and Christ. He deliberately de- 
cided to accept the kingdom and sac- 
rifice his religion. What do you 
think of his bargain? 

(3) How sadly common it is, too, 
for men to barter their birthright for 
gold. There are men all about us 
who are selling their souls for a mere 
pittance of this world's goods. There 
are men in all our communities who 
are selling their souls and destroying 
the souls of hundreds of others, for 
the paltry consideration of the few 
dollars which they receive across a 
saloon bar; while their customers, 
among the rich and poor alike, are 
dally bartering their souls for rum 
to feed a depraved appetite. The 
whole truth of the matter Is this, 
that sin is a great cheat; that Satan 
is bad pay. When any one parts 



with his birthright at any price, he 
makes a woefully bad bargain. 

III. One other lesson; it is this, 
that as in the case of Esau, when 
the bargain is once made, you can 
not "rue." "For ye know that after- 
ward when he would have inherited 
the blessing he was rejected; for he 
found no place of repentance, though 
he sought it carefully with tears." 
In all God's Word I know of no 
thought more solemn than this — that 
there is such a thing as unsuccessful 
repentance, regret that does not cure. 

(1) For example, suppose that you 
have foolishly bartered away the 
birthright of youth. Take a man 
who wakens up at 40 years of age 
and finds that his youth has been 
wasted, and then strives to get back 
his early advantages. Does he get 
them back? 

(2) Another example, — the case of 
parents who have bartered away 
their birthright of past faithfulness 
to their children. That parent who 
omits in the first ten years of a 
child's life to make an eternal im- 
pression for Christ and the good the 
chances are a thousand to one that 
he will never make it at all. 

(3) Just so is it, again, every time 
we barter away any single oppor- 
tunity for doing good. There is noth-_ 
ing in this world so vain as trying' 
to get back a lost opportunity. 

(4) Once more, we remind any 
who may be neglectful of the matter 
that the same danger threatens in 
regard to the soul's eternal salva- 
tion. God says, "My Spirit shall not 
always strive." 

A few years ago our government 
decided to redeem all trade dollars 
at their face value, though they were 
really worth only 85 cents. If on or 
before the 30th day of September, 
1887, you had taken to the treasury 
those coins you would have received 
in exchange a full dollar for every 
one. But you cannot do that now. 
It is too late. The day of the re- 
demption of that coin has passed. So 
there is a time for the redemption 
of every soul. If you let that time 
pass, it is gone, and once gone, it is 
gone forever. — H. 

The Evil of a Divided Heart 

"Their heart Is divided; now shall 
they be found faulty." Hosea 10:2. 

Israel, as a nation, divided Its alle- 
giance between Jehovah and Baal, and 



I 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 171 



so was given up to captivity. Men 
and women suffer evil, also, as a 
result of a divided heart. It brings 
loss of spiritual blessing, and leads 
to results that are much to be de- 
plored. 

I. How does the having of a di- 
vided heart manifest itself? 

(1) In the lack of a single-hearted 
reliance upon Christ for salvation. 
There are persons who possess faith 
in Christ, and yet they rely upon 
self. None but Christ can save them ; 
they cannot save themselves, and yet 
they fail in making Christ the only 
ground of their hope. They try to 
mix grace and works. They forget 
that we are saved by grace alone. 
After we are saved we have the priv- 
ilege and duty of working as much 
as we will, but there is but one 
Saviour, Christ, our Lord, and he 
must be trusted entirely for redemp- 
tion. 

(2) In the lack of a single-hearted 
love for God and his character. God 
is not loved at all if he is not loved 
wholly. As Saint Augustine has said : 
"How seldom is Jesus sought for 
Jesus." God wants a sincere and 
single-hearted love from us, and 
there are many who profess to serve 
him who do not love him in this 
way and revere his character as they 
ought. 

(3) In the lack of a single-hearted 
loyalty to God and his service. "No 
man can serve two masters." "Ye 
cannot serve God and mammon." 
There are too many who try to ren- 
der this kind of half-hearted service. 

II. How are those possessed of a 
divided heart regarded by God? 
They are "found faulty." In other 
words, their condition is not such as 
God can approve. They are faulty, 
because 

(1) Not to depend on Christ solely 
is faulty. When he purchases re- 
demption for us, he wants us to ac- 
cept of his finished work. When 
he forgives us, he wants us to be- 
lieve that he pardons completely. 
When he saves us, he saves us fully 
and by his own almighty power. 
We cannot be otherwise than faulty 
in his sight if we try to take away 
from the completeness of his work. 
(2) Not to love singly is faulty. 
Christ is insulted when a rival is 
admitted. In this respect his love is 
like a husband for a wife or a wife 
for a husband; it demands single- 



heartedness. Those whose hearts are 
divided, whose love is thus faulty, 
cannot be pleasing to Christ. 

(3) Not to serve singly is faulty. 
If a minister of Christ were, in his 
work, to aim at something else be- 
sides his proper effort for the good 
of souls, whether it be fame, learn- 
ing, philosophy, rhetoric, or personal 
gain, he certainly would be a very 
faulty servant of God. And so with 
any Christian who does not have a 
single purpose to advance the king- 
dom and do God's will, he is certainly 
manifesting a divided heart, and is 
found faulty. There are Christians 
who seem to wish to walk as near 
the line between right and wrong as 
ever they can, just so they are not 
clear over on the wrong side. Like 
some trees, they stand on the right 
side of the fence, but they lean a 
little over and when they fall they 
are sure to fall the wrong way. Such 
Christians show a lack of devotion. 
They want to get to heaven, but to 
enjoy just as much of sin and sinful 
pleasure as they possibly can, con- 
sistent with safety. They want to 
reach out just as far and gather as 
many of the flowers that grow on 
the edge of the dangerous precipice 
of sin as ever they can, just so they 
do not go over. They try Christ's 
patience and long-suffering love just 
as far as they dare, so he does not 
cast them off for ever. 

Let us give God our whole heart. 
He says : "My son, give me thy 
heart." He says to a seeker: "Ye 
shall seek me and ye shall find me 
when ye shall search for me with all 
thy heart." In seeking God, in lov- 
ing God, in serving God, he asks us 
to do it with the whole heart. Christ 
gave his whole heart to our redemp- 
tion. Let us give a whole heart to 
his service. 

Whole-hearted service is the way 
to the respect of our fellows. It 
is the way to personal happinesss. 
It is the way to highest usefulness. 
It is the way to God's approval and 
richest rewards. — H. 

Called for a Purpose 

"Who knowest whether thou art 
come to the kingdom for such a time 
as this?" Esther 4:14. 

The historical account in the Book 
of Esther is familiar. Read in God's 
word, sung in cantata, studied in his- 
tory, and so beautiful a story in 



172 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



itself, probably no portion of Scrip- 
ture is more familiar to old and 
young alike. Let us apply the lesson 
of Esther's call to ourselves. You 
may think yourself small, but no 
one else can fill your place. Why 
not believe that you are raised up 
of God for a purpose? That you 
have some special powers with spe- 
cial opportunities? That there is a 
place in which you stand that no 
other living soul can stand? "Who 
knowest whether thou art come to 
the kingdom for such a time as 
this?" Why were you born when 
you were and where you were ? Why 
are you living in this twentieth cen- 
tury, and especially in these early 
years of the century? Why were 
you entrusted with health and means, 
and position, and friends, and oppor- 
tunity? "Who knowest whether thou 
art come to the kingdom for such a 
time as this?" 

I. Remember, first, that like 
Esther, you cannot separate your 
interests from those of your people 
and your God. Mordecai made it 
plain to Esther that she should not 
escape in the seclusion of the king's 
palace were she to fail of her duty. 
He told her in case of her failure 
deliverance would arise to the Jews 
from another place, "but thou and 
thy father's house shall be de- 
stroyed." We are all bound together 
in a bundle of interests. "No man 
liveth to himself." Did the tempta- 
tion ever come to you to think of 
yourself alone? It is the very badge 
of a disciple that he join not only 
Christ, but his cause; that he con- 
sider not alone himself, but others. 
You must give yourself to Christ to 
make his interests your interests, his 
life your life, his kingdom your king- 
dom, his glory your glory. You 
must let your personal welfare 
merge itself into the interests of 
your Lord. It will never do simply 
to accept Christ to save us without 
accepting him to rule over and in 
us. The very act of enlisting is the 
offering yourself for service. 

IL Again, as in the case of Es- 
ther, not only are your interests in- 
separably associated with those of 
your fellowmen, but they are, in- 
deed, absolutely identical. There are 
a great many people who think that 
they can be interested in religion or 
not, just as they please. No, they 
are mi$?htily interested in religion 



whether they know it or not. We 
have seen in a religious periodical 
the account of a man in Texas who 
asked a missionary of the Sunday- 
school Union if the Bible said any- 
thing about Sunday-schools, and de- 
clared himself opposed to them. 
Next morning, the missionary met 
this same man on an early train. 
The man said he was going after 
his half-grown boy, who had run 
away from home, and who was giv- 
ing him a great deal of trouble. 
"There ought to be a law to prevent 
such things," said the man. "There 
is a law," said the missionary, "the 
law of God." "Well, it was a bad 
orphan boy in the neighborhood who 
persuaded my son to run away," said 
the father. "That shows how our 
homes are not safe if there are bad 
boys around," said the missionary. 
The fact is that we must train other 
children or ours are not safe. That 
is the lesson that comes right home 
to all Christian parents. You cannot 
separate your interests into one little 
parcel. You must train other chil- 
dren or your own are not safe. The 
question of the prevalence of Chris- 
tianity in your community touches 
you whether you know that it does 
or not. If your neighbor's yard is 
filthy, the disease germs will not re-, 
spect your garden wall. They will 
come up into your windows, smite 
down your children, or yourself. 
Moral pestilence also concerns us all. 
If the cause of Christ suffers, you 
suffer; if the tone of morality suf- 
fers, you suffer; if a high ideal of 
Christian character suffers, you suf- 
fer with it. There are a great many 
people in every community who take 
no interest in religion; never attend 
church ; pay nothing to the support 
of the gospel ; and at least by their 
actions show that they care for none 
of these things. They think they can 
separate their interests from Chris- 
tianity. Vain attempt ! 

III. Once more, this incident of 
Esther, so full of lessons, may well 
bring us another thought, as to what 
an exalted position we have been 
brought, and why? Was it not a 
strange thing that Esther, the foster 
child of a humble Jew, should rise 
from lowly rank to be Queen of 
Persia? Yet, if we were to say that 
you have been raised to the position 
of kings and queens, it would be poor 
exaltation, compared with that which 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 173 



you have actually received. Kings 
and priests unto God! "Heirs of 
God and joint heirs with Christ"! 

IV. What then are the obligations 
of one so highly favored ? God has a 
purpose toward others in our exalta- 
tion. As truly as with Esther, so 
has he in your case. We are saved 
to save others. Why should not each 
of us feel that we have come to our 
kingdom for such a time as this? 
That we and our work fit together? 
Are you a teacher in the Sunday- 
school? Who knows but what you 
have come to your class at this very 
time to bring them all safe into the 
fold of Christ? Are you a young 
man, newly accepting the duties of 
church membership? Who knows but 
what God brought you into the 
church to be a wonderful blessing to 
the church? to meet the great need 
for men who will sacrifice and work 
and take responsibility in his name 
and for his sake? And how many 
Esthers there are, called to be 
queens I Society is in bondage to evil 
practices. Death to all that is pure 
and true is threatened. "Who 
knoweth whether thou art come to 
the kingdom for such a time as 
this?" is the message to every Chris- 
tian woman. You may be Israel's 
deliverer if you will. Each servant 
of God is called for a purpose. We 
each have a kingdom. To it we are 
brought for such a time as this. A 
holy confidence in God's divine pur- 
pose regarding us should fill us with 
mighty impulse toward a heroic life. 
— H. 

Blest to Bless: Preparation for Re^ 
vival 

"I will bless thee, and make thy 
name great ; and be thou a blessing." 
(R. V.) Gen 12:2. 

When God blesses us with gifts of 
any kind, he wants us to be a bless- 
ing to others. Nothing he gives us 
is for ourselves alone; we receive 
that we may give again. 

I. Notice, first, the fact that this 
is God's plan for carrying on his 
work. So far as we can see it is 
God's plan to convert the world 
through man's effort for men. Christ 
said, "As the Father has sent me, 
even so send I you." There was once 
a man who came to Christ being 
possessed of an unclean spirit. 
Christ cast out the evil spirit and 
restored him to his right mind. Then, 



in his gratitude, the man prayed that 
he might go with Christ. The wish 
seemed natural and right, but, "No," 
Christ said, "I have blessed thee, now 
be thou a blessing — go home to thy 
friends and tell them how great 
things the Lord has done for thee." 
Two of John's disciples were pointed 
to Christ. They asked him, "Master, 
where dwellest thou?" And he said, 
"Come and see." They spent the day 
with him. But the blessing they got 
had all the force of a command to 
them. It was as if Christ had said, 
"Now, John, I have blest thee, be 
thou a blessing. Go find your brother 
and bring him to me." Or, turning 
to Andrew, "Andrew, you have been 
with me to-day; now that I have 
blest thee, be thou a blessing to thy 
brother Simon." 

Whatever the gift God has be- 
stowed upon you, he wants you to use 
it to bless others. 

(1) Maybe he has given you youth, 
vigor and strength. He says, "I 
will bless thee with these; now be 
thou a blessing to others through 
these gifts." 

(2) Maybe God has blessed you 
with loving, winning ways, — with 
beauty of person and form and fea- 
ture. He says to you, "Be thou a 
blessing, and use these gifts to win 
others to Christ." You can teach in 
the Sunday-school, you can work in 
the church ; by your very winsome- 
ness you can bless others. 

(3) Maybe God has blessed you 
with the possession of influence and 
the respect of your neighbors. These 
are gifts you may employ to bless the 
world. 

(4) God may have blessed you as 
parents. You have the love of your 
family as a rich gift; now be thou a 
blessing by using a parent's influ- 
ence to lead your household to 
Christ. 

(5) God may have blessed you in 
business and entrusted you with 
means. Be thou a blessing in help- 
ing the poor, and in supporting and 
spreading the gospel. 

(6) It may be the gift of music or 
song you possess. Then be you a 
singing pilgrim, hymning the gospel 
into the hearts of men. "Though 
they may forget the singer, they will 
not forget the song." 

Not one of us but has some talent, 
some opportunity, some way in which 
we have been blessed that we may 



174 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



use, in turn, in blessing others. It 
is our duty to do so. It is in this 
way God's work is to be done in the 
world. 

II. Not only is this God's plan, 
but, secondly, all our success de- 
pends upon our following it. 

There is a dangerous tendency in 
these days toward individual shift- 
ing of personal duty upon the shoul- 
ders of committees, and corporations, 
and associations. We form associa- 
tions. We pass resolutions. We ap- 
point committees. We circulate peti- 
tions. Let us remember that none of 
these things can take the place of 
personal, individual effort. Your in- 
dividual duty cannot be done through 
any committee or association. There 
is a tendency to rely upon great 
movements in the Church, — upon the 
use of methods and machinery. The 
Church cannot by any method lay 
hold of some huge drag-net and draw 
in at a single haul a multitude of 
fishes. Christian work must be 
largely individual work, upon indi- 
vidual hearts. Dr. Cuyler once re- 
marked : "A great many crude things 
have been said about the machinery 
of revivals ; but there is one sort of 
machinery as old as the apostles and 
which never wears out ; it is the sim- 
ple method of personal effort 
prompted by love." All Christian 
work succeeds largely in proportion 
as individual Christians become pos- 
sessed with the sense of their personal 
duty. "I will bless thee, and be thou 
a blessing." Great things would come 
about if in all our churches we could 
get the membership conscious of their 
personal opportunities and responsi- 
bilities. Mr. Spurgeon says_ that 
when Moses went to tell the king of 
Egypt that he would call up the 
plague of frogs upon the land,_ he 
can imagine the king answering: 
"Your God is the God of frogs, is 
he? Well, I am not afraid of frogs, 
so bring them on." "But," says 
Moses, "there are a great many of 
them, O King." And the king found 
that out ! So we may be very weak 
individually, but in each church there 
are a great many of us, and we may 
accomplish a great deal of work if 
we will. 

God's plan is this : *T will bless 
thee ; be thou a blessing." All our 
success depends upon our following 
that plan. But let us not forget, also, 
that our highest blessedness will come 



in this same way. God says, "He 
that watereth shall be watered also 
himself." "To him that hath, shall 
be given." Our highest joy comes 
in the very act of service. — H. 

At the Door 

"And all the city was gathered to- 
gether at the door." Mark 1 : 35. "I 
am the door." John 10:9. 

I. This gathering. 

(1) Who composed this gathering? 
"All the city." "It takes all in all 
sorts," etc. Sick, well, friends. 

(2) They were the neighbors of 
Jesus. Who is our neighbor? 

(3) They were the citizens of the 
most highly favored city. Privileges 
of Capernaum. 

II. The place of the gathering. 

(1) A strange place for such a 
gathering. At the door of a private 
house. Peter's mother-in-law's house. 

(2) Still it was a good place for 
any gathering. Jesus was inside ! 

(3) Yet it was a poor place after 
all, for a gathering. Only at the 
door ! "Outsiders" and "Insiders." 

III. Why was that gathering at 
that place? 

(1) To see Jesus! 

(2) To hear Jesus! 

(3) To be blessed by Jesus. 

IV. Thoughts from the union of 
these texts. 

(1) All men are looking for this 
door! There is a universal need, de- 
sire, effort to get salvation. 

(2) Many men never see this door! 
The multitudes in heathendom. How 
sad their condition. Some will not 
look. 

(3) Some men see this door, but 
will not enter it ! Who they are. 
Awful responsibility. Jesus came on 
earth to be the Door. Where can we 
find him? You are at the door just 
now! 

The Conversion of Saul 
Acts 9: 1-30. 

I. Its circumstances : Without pre- 
liminary preparation or special in- 
struction — without human instrumen- 
tality — attended with miraculous 
scenes. 

II. Its nature : A sudden and en- 
tire change in his views of Jesus 
Christ. He has thought of him as 
(a) mere man; (b) a bad man; 
(c) a pretending Messiah; therefore 
he has felt it his duty to arrest the 
progress of his religion. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 175 



These false views of Christ were 
instantly rejected, and he saw him 
as (a) his divine Lord; (b) the hu- 
man Jesus; (c) the promised Mes- 
siah, and whose religion it was his 
duty to advance. 

III. The agency : Not men or out- 
ward circumstances, but it was the 
immediate act of God — the special 
work of the Holy Spirit. 

IV. Effects of this change: From 
despising, hating, opposing he came 
to adoring, loving, following Christ 
with his whole heart — ^consecrated 
himself to the endeavor to persuade 
men to be Christians — became one 
of the greatest, best and happiest of 
men — ^secured a high place among the 
redeemed in glory. — Henderson. 

Conversion of Cornelius 

Acts 10. 

I. Cornelius was doing the will of 
God so far as he knew it. (a) 
feared God; (b) taught his house- 
hold; (c) gave alms; (d) prayed. 

II. He earnestly desired to know 
more about spiritual things. 

III. He obeyed God's directions 
how to learn more, (a) Sent for 
God's messenger; (b) heard the 
Word attentively; (c) opened his 
heart to the Holy Spirit. 

IV. He called his friends together, 
that they, too, might receive the bless- 
ing. 

V. He united with Christ's Church 
without delay. 

VI. He kept on trying to learn 
more; by desiring Peter to tarry. — 
Henderson. 

Soldier of Jesus Christ 

2 Tim. 2 : 2. 

(1) Volunteers. Heb. 11:25. 

(2) Uniformed. Phil. 3:9; Rev. 
3:4. 

(3) Armed. Eph. 6:11, 18. 

(4) Drilled. Eph. 6:13. 

(5) Ready to advance on the 
enemy. Ex. 14 : 15. 

(6) Endurance. 2 Tim, 2 : 3. 

(7) Victorious. 2 Tim. 4:7; Rom. 
8:37. 

(8) A grand review. Rev. 7 : 13- 
15. — Rev. Hay Bell. 

Christ's Invitation 

"Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavv laden, and I will give 
you rest." Matt. 11:28. 

I. The characters addressed. They 
who labor and are heavy laden. 



(1) With a sense of sin in its de- 
filing, condemning and distressing 
power. 

(2) With a sense of their own 
weakness, unable to remove their 
misery. 

(3) With many doubts and fears. 

(4) With many sorrows. 

II. The invitation given. Come 
unto me. To Christ, the rich, com- 
passionate, kind powerful One — 
King, Teacher, Physician, Shepherd, 
Friend. 

(1) Possessed of a perfect knowl- 
edge of your case. 

(2) Willing to bless. 

(3) Able to save and relieve. 

III. The blessing promised. "Rest." 

(1) Peace and rest here arising 
from forgiving and justifying 
grace. 

(2) Full enjoyment of heaven here- 
after. 

A Threefold Manner of Life 

I. Soberly — In regard to ourselves. 
Rom. 12 : 3. 

II. Righteously — In respect of the 
world. Prov. 2 : 20. 

III. Godly — In relation to God. 2 
Tim. 3 : 12. 

Out of Egypt Into Canaan 

"And he brought us out from 
thence," etc. Deut. 6:23. 

This verse refers to that wonder- 
ful exodus from Egypt when God 
brought out his people — out of the 
land of bondage, and into their Ca- 
naan home. It was a great salvation, 
a signal deliverance which parents 
and children alike were to keep in 
mind. The verse beautifully ^ illus- 
trates, we think, the outbringing 
from sin and the inbringing into 
Christ of every Christian soul, which 
it is just as important, whether we 
be young or old, that we keep ever 
in loving remembrance. 

I. Notice, in the first place, that 
to every Christian soul there is a 
bringing out of bondage into the 
glorious liberty of the children of 
God. "He brought us out from 
thence that he might bring us in," — 
out of the bondage of sin into the 
liberty of the children of God. 

Every sinner is a slave. Conver- 
sion is emancipation. Christ is a lib- 
erator. The Bible constantly speaks 
of our condition in sin as bondage. 
The hardest bondage in this world is 
the bondage of sin. Like with I§- 



176 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



rael in Egypt sin "makes our lives 
bitter, with hard bondage, in mortar 
and in brick, and in all manner of 
service." As truly as with the bond- 
men in Egypt is every unconverted 
soul forced to "make bricks without 
straw.'' 

But just here comes in the meaning 
of the mission of Christ, He is the 
iioul's Emancipator, giving deliver- 
ance to every captive the moment he 
trusts him. On the instant of faith 
the fetters are stricken off, and we 
step forth upon God's broad earth, 
free men, — out of bondage and into 
the glorious liberty of the sons of 
God. 

He brought us out from thence that 
he might bring us in — 

"Out of the distance and darkness 

so deep. 
Out of the settled and perilous 

sleep ; 
Out of the bondage and wearing of 

chains. 
Out of companionship ever with 
stains, — 
Into the light and the glory of 

God, 
Into the holiest, made clean by 

his blood ; 
Into the quiet, the infinite calm, 
Into the place of the song and 
the psalm, — 
Wonderful love, that has wrought 

all for me! 
Wonderful work that has thus set 

me free 1 
Wonderful ground upon which I 

have come ! 
Wonderful tenderness, welcoming 
home 1" 

II. A second practical thought is 
this, that having sincerely accepted 
the deliverance of Christ, God by 
his grace brings us out of the old 
practices and into the new. 

Conversion, if genuine, makes a 
radical change of conduct. Profane 
lips stop swearing, and tippling lips 
cease drinking, Sabbath-breakers seek 
the house of God and pleasure-seek- 
ers find higher pleasure in trying to 
please their Master. 

A young girl recently seeking union 
with the Church was asked if she 
could think of any way in which be- 
ing a Christian ought to make a 
change in her life. She replied, "I 
should think it ought to make a 
change in every way." Who will 



deny that she had the right concep- 
tion of Christian living? She had 
firmly fixed in her mind and heart 
the principle that religion has much 
to do not only with the inward mo- 
tive, but with the outward life. 

Change of character and conduct 
is the test. "By their fruits ye shall 
know them." "He brought us out 
from thence that he might bring us 
in," — ^out of old practices and into 
the new. See this illustrated in the 
change in Paul from a persecutor to 
the most devoted apostle. See it 
manifested in John Bunyan, born of 
a low Gypsy woman, wicked, vulgar, 
blasphemous beyond expression, yet 
yonder is John Bunyan again, behind 
the bars of Bedford prison, with 
God's Word in one hand, and with 
the other, pointing the whole world 
into the way that leads from destruc- 
tion up to the gates" of the Celestial 
City ! What a difference in the same 
man ! God does by his grace bring 
us into the right and beautiful con- 
duct of the new. 

HI. There is yet another "com- 
ing out," which is essential to all 
healthy and happy piety, — coming out 
from the world and into Christ's 
fold. Out of Egypt ought to mean 
into Canaan. We cannot belong in 
the Church and in the world both. 
No man can divide his allegiance. 
The Bible draws sharp lines. On one 
side walks Christ ; on the other side 
goes the world. No man can bestride 
the line and walk with both. It is 
said that the first king of the Sax- 
ons who was baptized had in the same 
church one altar to the Christian re- 
ligion and another for sacrificing to 
demons. It will never do ! Full well 
do we know that no such service is 
acceptable to God. Half-heartedness 
is sin. Indecision is sin. Delay is 
sin. When God gives us his grace, 
he asks in return a heart-loyalty that 
will carry us clear over from the 
world's side to Christ's side, "He 
brings us out from thence that he 
may bring us in," 

"Out of the false and into the true, 
Out of the old man into the new, 
Out of what measures the full 

depth of 'lost,' 
Out of it all at an infinite cost; 
Into the union which nothing can 

part, 
Into what satisfies his and my 
heart ; 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 177 



Into the deepest of joys ever 

had— 
Into the gladness of making God 
glad! 
Wonderful Person whom I shall 

behold ! 
Wonderful story then all to be 

told! 
Wonderful all the dread way he 

trod! 
Wonderful end, he has brought me 
to God!" 

— H. 

/ Closed Door and Waiting Saviour 

"Behold I stand at the door and 
knock," etc. Rev. 3:20. 

There is a wonderful picture by 
Holman Hunt, called "The Light of 
the World." It represents the Sav- 
iour knocking at the door of the 
heart, in illustration of these Avords : 
"Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock," etc. He stands with bowed 
head, listening. Across the door 
vines have grown; it has been long 
since it was unclosed. He holds in 
his hand a lantern, from which the 
rays fall on some fruit which has 
dropped ungathered. His back is to- 
ward the light of the rising moon. 
The attitude is that of earnest, im- 
portunate waiting. 

There is another picture, by the 
artist Bida, which might well be 
made a companion piece of Hunt's. 
It illustrates the passage in the 
twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew 
regarding the five foolish virgins. 
They, too, are in waiting, having cast 
themselves down in despair on the 
steps of a palace. One picture repre- 
sents Jesus standing at the door of 
men's hearts knocking for admission 
there; the other shows us those who 
have refused to hear his voice plead- 
ing for admission into his heavenly 
kingdom. One refers to time, the 
other to the morning of eternity. 
One shows how easy it is to be saved 
now ; the other shows how hopeless 
we will have made our condition if 
we harden our hearts, neglect our 
opportunities, continue to exclude 
Christ, and let our characters become 
fixed in the mould of evil. 

I. A closed door and a vv^aiting 
Saviour. 

(1) Infinite love is certainly mani- 
fested in the fact that Christ, the 
King of earth and heaven, comes to 
us, not waiting for us to go to him. 

(2) More than this, Jbe .stands, in 



the position of a suppliant. How 
strange that any one should hesitate 
to hasten out and entreat him to come 
in as rightful Lord and most welcome 
guest ! 

(3) But his affectionate desire to- 
wards us is not satisfied without fur- 
ther demonstrations. "Behold," saith 
he, *T stand at the door and knock." 
He will not force the door; but he 
is there, standing, knocking! He is 
not merely willing to save you, but 
has an earnest, importunate desire to 
save you. It is not the prodigal 
seeking the Father, but, greater love 
than that, the Father seeks the prodi- 
gal. Instead of your seeking him, 
he has found you. The question is 
not, will the Saviour accept you? but, 
will you reject the Saviour? 

(4) But knocking does not ex- 
haust his efforts, for he calls. "If 
any man hear my voice." He has a 
voice, a kind and pleading voice. He 
has not spoken a single harsh word 
to you as he has stood at the door 
bf your heart. "O Voice of Love, 
how kind Thou art!" 

(5) Bear in mind that Christ will 
never force the door of your heart. 
It was once exclaimed by one of our 
most eloquent senators that an Eng- 
lishman's cottage is his castle. It is 
true. The winds may whistle through 
every crevice, and the rains pene- 
trate through every cranny, but into 
the cottage the monarch of England 
dare not enter against the cotter's 
will. This is just the state of the 
case between Christ and the human 
soul. He has such a respect for the 
will of that immortal tenant that he 
has placed within us that he will 
never force an entrance. He will do 
everything else ; he will come, and 
stand and knock, and call, but he 
will never force an entrance. "If any 
man hear my voice and open the 
door I will come in," etc. 

II. The open door and Christ 
within. "If any man hear my voice 
and open the door, I will come in to 
him, and sup with him, and he with 
me." 

(1) Here is, first, the promise of 
his divine incoming. He makes the 
unqualified assurance that if we open 
the door, he will come in. There is 
no perhaps or peradventure about it. 
If we want to be saved he will save 
us. If we open our hearts he will 
enter. 

(2) Here is also promise of hig 



178 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



divine indwelling. After he has en- 
tered, if we cherish his loving pres- 
ence, he will stay — dwelling with us, 
giving us an earnest of the joys of 
life eternal. 

This is all the more plainly seen 
by his promise of fellowship. "I will 
sup with him, and he with me." He 
sits down with us as friend with 
friend, as brother with brother at a 
familiar table. He talks with us, 
and invites us to talk with him. He 
opens the way for us to tell him of 
our sorrows and our joys, our per- 
plexities and our hopes, our difficul- 
ties and our desires ; and then he 
takes of the things of the Father 
and shows them unto us until the 
chamber of communion glows within 
us, and we are filled with light and 
peace and strength and holy joy. 

(3) But you may ask, What kind 
of a feast can I give for such a 
guest? Fear not to invite him in, 
for, strange to say, the Master brings 
his own provision. He spreads the 
table of divine satisfaction and of- 
fers to you — his fortunate and grate- 
ful^ host. "Eat, O friend," he ex- 
claims, "drink; yea, drink abun- 
dantly." 

(4) Maybe you wonder how you 
will ever be able to serve him as you 
ought, if you do admit him as 
your Lord. Can you hold out? 
Yes, and just because the meat he 
gives you increases strength, your 
fellowship with him drives out evil, 
and he makes his grace sufficient for 
you. 

Oh, unsatisfied one, this is the 
kind of Saviour who is standing just 
outside the fast-barred door of your 
heart. Open the door and let him 
in. Swing it wide open and invite 
him in. Receive him, welcome him 
with humble gratitude. If you do, 
that seeking One will prove both 
your Redeemer and Friend, and for 
time and for eternity. — H. 

Conversion 

"Except ye be converted, and be- 
come as little children, ye shall not 
enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
Matt. 18 : 3. 

There are three places in the New 
Testament where the word "except" 
appears very significantly : Luke 13 : 
3-5 ; John 3:3; Matt. 18 : 3. 

L The need of conversion. De- 
pravity. The need of conversion is 
universal, "Ye must be born again" 



is the word of the Lord to all. With- 
out this divine blessing and power 
we cannot satisfy God for the past, 
please him for the present, nor serve 
him in the future. 

IL The work of conversion. 
Grace. The work of conversion is 
all of God. It is a spiritual change 
wrought in the heart and life by the 
Holy Spirit when the soul believes 
in Jesus. Repentance is a new mind 
about God. Regeneration is a new 
heart from God. Conversion is a 
new life for God. 

III. The fruit of conversion. Life. 
The fruit of conversion is seen first 
in the spirit, then in the life, and 
then in the testimony for Jesus. It 
will be the new spirit of humility, 
trust and obedience like the little 
child. 

The Nearness of God 

"Thou art near, O Lord." Ps. 
119: 15L 

I. God is essentially near. His 
presence is universal. "Do not I fill 
heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" 
"Am I a God at hand, and not afar 
off?" "Thou God seest me." 

II. God is manifestly near. (1) 
In creation. (2) In providence. 

III. God is graciously near. He is 
near through Christ. Near as a sin- 
forgiving God. Near as a promise- 
keeping God. Near as a prayer- 
hearing God. Near as a gracious, 
tender Father. He is near to save 
you. 

Saul of Tarsus Praying 

"Behold, he prayeth." Acts 9:11. 

What, Saul of Tarsus pray ! That 
blasphemer! Does he pray? Oh! 
then, what a wondrous change must 
have been effected in his whole char- 
acter, thoughts, views, feelings, and 
desires ! It is even so. 

Here, then, you have : 

I. An object of thrilling interest. 
A man in prayer ; the most interest- 
ing object under heaven — it excites 
the liveliest interest in heaven and in 
hell. "Behold, he prayeth." Then 
the Eternal bends from his throne tO' 
listen. Does he pray? — then the Re- 
deemer intercedes in his behalf, and 
the cross is a pledge for the accept- 
ance of his prayers. Does he pray? 
— then the Holy Spirit inspires, ani- 
mates, dictates his petition, and pleads 
for him, etc. Does he pray? — then, 
"there is joy," etc. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 179 



(1) Prayer is the utterance of a 
right mind. 

(2) It is in accord with our situa- 
tion as creatures. We are dependent. 
Those who never pray seem to act 
upon the monstrous supposition that 
they are their own creator. 

(3) It especially becomes us as 
sinners. 

(4) It is the very element of the 
Christian. "Behold, he prayeth." 

II. A circumstance of a hopeful 
character. 

(1) To himself. When a man be- 
gins to pray he begins to feel. Real 
prayer is the utterance of feeling. 
It is the language of his heart; and 
instead of uttering more than he 
feels, he utters far less. 

When a man begins to pray he be- 
gins to yield. His heart is subdued. 
The rebel is won. Oh! what a re- 
verse now ! Saul of Tarsus begins 
to say, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" 

Faith is essential to prayer. Does 
a man pray? — then he has fled, or 
is flying, for refuge to Christ. Did 
I say it was a hopeful circumstance? 
I recall the word; he has risen far 
above that level; it is an absolute^ 
infallible certainty; the salvation of 
the man who prays in faith is as 
certain as the faithfulness, the im- 
mutability of the Father. 

(2) It is a hopeful circumstance to 
others. To the family in which he 
dwells. To the Church he attends. 
To the world in which he lives. 

The Constraint of Love 

"For the love of Christ constrain- 
eth us." 2 Cor. 5 : 14. 

I. Next to a moral ideal, we need 
a spiritual uplift, a constant impulse 
prompting us to approach that ideal. 
Christianity affords provision for 
both these fundamental needs. In 
Jesus, "behold the Man." And as to 
the motive, the inward energy, the 
power not ourselves which we may 
make our own, whose operation in 
our lives brings us nearer and nearer 
daily to the mark of our high call- 
ing, is it not the love of Christ? 

IL This phrase has a threefold 
meaning; the love of Christ for us, 
our love for him, and his love in us. 
This it is that constraineth us. 

in. Constraint, however, is not 
coercion. It depends upon whether 
the constraining power be from with- 
out or from within. If the force be 



external we may resist it, but if it be 
a moral energy within ourselves we 
may gladly yield. Hunger constrains 
us to eat, but we do not need to be 
driven to the breakfast table. Love 
constrains a mother to minister to 
her household, and she becomes a 
willing servant all her days. Yet she 
is never so free as when she is serv- 
ing those she loves. We sometimes 
speak of being "in duty bound" to 
do such and such things. Duty, con- 
science, faith, gratitude, affection, all 
bind us to do God's will. We are 
"captive, yet divinely free." — Rev. 
Charles C. Albertson, D.D. 

Invitations 

"I stand and knock." Rev. 3 : 20. 

"I came to call sinners." Luke 5 : 32. 

"Come unto me and rest." Matt. 
11:28. 

"Come unto me and drink." John 

"Come now, let us reason." Isa. 
1:18. 

"Come to the waters." Isa. 45 : 1. 

"Come, all things are ready." Luke 
14 : 17. 

"No wise cast out." John 6 : 37-47. 

"Come, whosoever will." Rev. 22: 
17. 

Christ Waiting 

"Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock," etc. Rev. 3 : 20. 

These words are addressed to care- 
less professors. However applicable 
to sinners, they are not addressed to 
them. These words produce widely 
different emotions. Sorrow, that the 
door is shut. Joy, that he knocks 
and waits. Wonder. 

I. What bars the door? The 17th 
ver. answers: (1) Riches. Prosper- 
ity in the world too often makes the 
heart callous to the voice of Christ. 
"If riches increase," etc. (2) In- 
dolence, ver. 15. Beware of luke- 
warmness. Earnest hearts alone give 
Christ a hearty welcome. (3) Pride. 
"I have need of nothing." Self-sat- 
isfaction is incompatible with devo- 
tion. He who prays aright, prays as 
a pensioner. 

II. Why is it not opened? Is it 
that they do not hear his voice? 
Have they no desire to see him? 
Why is your heart shut? Is it not 
because you have dwelling within 
that which Christ abhors ; that you 
are loath to part with? Darling sins. 
Unworthy motives. Sinful desires. 



i8o 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



Oh, let him in; he will, he must 
drive out these polluters of the Holy- 
Spirit's temple. 

III. Who knocks without? Thy 
Friend! thy Saviour! thy God! On 
him are marks of what he has borne 
for you. In his hand are blessings 
he intends for you. 

IV. What is his errand? (1) He 
seeks communion. He would speak 
to you and have you speak to him. 
(2) He seeks refreshment. For him- 
self, for you. The heart when 
Christ dwells therein knows no want. 
Here Jesus sees of the travail of his 
soul, and is satisfied. 

V. Is he to be admitted? (1) If 
so, it must be at once. (2) With a 
hearty welcome. 

Jesus knocks; listen. Open. 

Danger of Delay 

More souls are lost through delay 
than any other cause. 

(1) Choose now. Jos. 24:15. 

(2) Seek God first. Matt. 6:33. 

(3) Delay will harden your heart. 
Heb. 3 : 15. 

(4) He is near you now. Isa. 55: 
6. 

(5) Be ready. Matt. 24:44. 

Excuses 

"They all with one consent began 
to make excuse." Luke 14:18. 

I. An excuse implies guilt. It is 
the acknowledgment of an unper- 
formed duty, with a request for par- 
don. Our capacity for action in a 
life full of limitations is such that 
we are occasionally forced to leave 
undone or defer doing what we ought 
to do. In such a case we feel justi- 
fied in asking to be excused. But 
our excuses become insults to the 
party to whom they are offered when 
we exalt a minor duty above a great 
and essential one, when by our very 
excuses we minimize the importance 
of the one thing needful. 

II. In the parable of the great 
supper earthly interests are set 
against the divine call of grace by 
the unwilling guests. Does the Lord, 
then, mean that in order to become 
Christians we must let weeds grow 
on our farms, suffer our cattle to 
perish, and break a lawful marriage 
engagement? Indeed not; all these 
things have the divine approval and 
do not in themselves conflict with 
the profession and practice of Chris- 
tianity. Peter was engaged in ply- 



ing his trade as a fisherman when the 
Lord asked for the loan of his boat, 
and Peter incurred no loss by sus- 
pending for a season his regular oc- 
cupation. 

III. Godliness is profitable unto all 
things, and has the promise of this 
life and that which is to come. But 
foolish shortsightedness, carnal in- 
difference, and plain aversion to holy 
things make men misunderstand com- 
pletely in which direction their best 
interests lie. 

IV. It is this materialistic, thor- 
oughly secular spirit that the Lord 
attacks in the present parable. As a 
servant of the Lord and rejoicing in 
God's favor, how much better would 
the farmer have enjoyed his new 
field, the cattle-raiser his oxen, the 
newly-married the holy estate of 
matrimony! Justly the Lord of the 
banquet is angry at such ruthless 
contempt of his gracious overtures 
to sinners. — D. 

Wlow the Accepted Time 

"Behold, now is the accepted time; 
behold, now is the day of salvation." 
2 Cor. 6 : 2. 

I. Repentance ought not to be de- 
layed, when we consider the nature 
of repentance and the comm.and of 
God concerning it. (1) Its nature — 
a change of heart, and a change of 
life. (2) God's command — distinct 
and peremptory. 

II. Repentance ought not to be de- 
layed, because delay will increase its 
difficulties. (1) From the power of 
habit, of sinful habit. (2) From the 
cessation of the strivings of the Holy 
Spirit. 

III. Repentance ought not to be 
delayed, because circumstances may 
occur to render it impracticable. 
(1) There may be change of resi- 
dence. (2) There may be loss of 
health. (3) There may be loss of 
reason. (4) There may be loss of 
life. 

Almost a Christian 

"Thou art not far from the king- 
dom of God." Mark 12 : 34. 

To the Almost a Christian: 

I. Describe him. 

(1) He may have a considerable 
knowledge of religion. 

(2) He may have strong convic- 
tions of sin. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES i8i 



(3) He may have a good reputa- 
tion among men. 

(4) He may have freedom from 
many of the vices by which he was 
once enslaved. 

(5) He may have a Hking for the 
public and private exercises of devo- 
tion as forms. 

n. Warn him. 

(1) He will not, in his present 
state, attain the blessings of salva- 
tion. 

(2) If lost, his ruin will be all 
the greater because of his attain- 
ments. 

"Not far from" is not "in" the 
kingdom. But it is a hopeful con- 
dition, a condition of present and 
blessed opportunity. Enter. Enter 
now. 

The Great Question 

"Dost thou believe on the Son of 
God?" John 9:35. 

The chapter relates the extraordi- 
nary cure of the man born blind. 
By this miracle Jesus declared him- 
self to be the Son of God with 
power. Great was the miracle for 
the body — but a greater miracle was 
effected for the soul. 

I. The object of faith. **The Son 
of God." His Divinity and God- 
head appear from the following con- 
siderations : From the express declara- 
tions of Scripture. From the per- 
fections ascribed to him, which are 
peculiar to Deity. Eternity: "Before 
Abraham was I am." Unchangeable- 
ness; "Jesus Christ, the same yester- 
day," etc. Heb. 13:8. Almighty 
power; "Christ the power of God." 
1 Cor. 1 : 24. Infinite wisdom ; 
"Light of the world ;" "the only wise 
God." Infinite love; "Ye know the 
grace," etc. 2 Cor. 8 : 9. Creation 
is ascribed to him. And so is re- 
demption. From the works which he 
did. These could not have been done 
by a person inferior to God. Such 
as searching the heart, and perceiv- 
ing what was in it, healing the sick 
and raising the dead, the forgiving of 
sins. 

II. The nature of faith. "Dost 
thou believe?" It is not merely giv- 
ing credit to the Scriptures. It is 
not merely confessing the doctrines 
of any particular creed. It is not 
a mere professing of faith. Faith is 
confidence, trust or reliance upon the 
sacrificial death of Christ for salva- 
tion and everlasting life. It is the 



act of the heart by which we heart- 
ily welcome him into our souls. The 
Scriptures figuratively represent this 
grace, as beholding him, or looking 
to him ; it is coming to Christ, laying 
hold of him, receiving him, resting 
on him, etc. 

III. The effects of faith. "Dost 
thou believe on the Son of God?" 
If so, the effects of faith will be 
mental comfort and satisfaction, and 
holy fruits, showing to the world 
that we are the subjects of a very 
important change. 

The text applies personally, "Dost 
thou believe on the Son of God?" 
It does not relate to others, but to 
ourselves. It does not refer to more 
information or opinion, but to faith. 
It refers not either to past or fu- 
ture, but to the present: "Dost thou 
believe?" 

Give Me Thine Heart 

"My son, give me thine heart." 
Prov. 23:26. 

In this chapter God is speaking to 
men under the similitude of a father 
addressing his son. 

I. We may regard this request as 
strange. 

Strange from a father's lips. Sur- 
passingly strange from such a fa- 
ther's. What surprise would fill an 
archangel's breast were he thus ad- 
dressed ! With what mingled wonder 
and awe would he answer, "Thou 
knowest that I love thee!" Yet an 
archangel has not more cause to love 
the Father than man. He has not a 
higher destiny than we are offered. 
He never received such a proof of 
love as we have in the gift of the 
Son of God. 

II. We may regard this request as 
comprehensive. 

God requires "the heart," that is, 
a real practical love. 

( 1 ) Not mere sentiment. Not mere 
impulse. Not mere word-love. But 
a love that implicitly obeys. That 
leads us to delight in God. 

(2) Not merely the acts of filial 
love. God might as well have slaves 
as sons if the essence of sonship 
consisted in performing certain 
works. 

III. We may regard this request 
as significant. 

If God asks our love, it is evident 
he already loves us. We never ask 
those for their love who are dis- 
liked by us. Now the already ex- 



l82 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



isting love of God to us should 
be the pattern of our love to 
him. 

IV. We may regard this request as 
practicable. 

It is possible to give the heart to 
God. An objector may say, "How 
can I love an abstraction?" We are 
not required. God is manifest in 
the flesh. If we give the heart to 
Christ, it is given to God. Can we 
not love Jesus, the Lord? Come, sit 
at his feet, look up into his face, 
hear his words, and say. Is it diffi- 
cult to love such a being? 

Strange but True 

"Yet there is room." Luke 14 : 22. 

"Yet there is room" reminds us of 
the vacant places which ought to 
have been filled ; of those who would 
not come. How many we love have 
not entered to this supper yet ! And 
ve are working and praying for 
them that they may join us. Nor do 
we work in vain — there is room — we 
are engaged in no doubtful work; if 
we can but lead men to come, we are 
sure when they are brought they 
will find admittance and acceptance. 

I. A strange fact. 

(1) That there should be room at 
such a supper. The tables of the 
wealthy seldom lack guests. 

(2) That there should be room 
after such an invitation. The invi- 
tation was to "many." The invitation 
was hearty and pressing. "Come." 
"Ready." The invitation was con- 
veyed by the host's own servants. 

(3) That there should be room 
after such exertions. The servants 
had invited, beside, the maimed, halt, 
blind, etc. 

II. A welcome announcement. 

(1) There is room, for such guests. 
Those having no claim. The way- 
farer ; the stranger ; the beggar. 

(2) There is room, though so many 
have assembled. Doubtless many, as 
described in ver. 21, accepted the in- 
vitation. "Yet," after such a gather- 
ing. 

(3) There is room, though the host 
has been so treated. It is a marvel 
there was a supper at all. 

III. An alarming inference. 
Though there is, there will not al- 
ways be room. 

The Forgiveness of Sin 

"Who can forgive sins but God 
only ?" Mark 2:7. 



(1) We cannot forgive our own 
sins. 

(2) No human being can forgive 
our sins. 

(3) God alone can forgive our sins. 

(4) God forgives our sins only for 
Christ's sake. 

(5) The agency of Christ in the 
forgiveness of sin proves that he is 
God. 

Christ Our Example 

"Let this mind be in you which 
was also in Christ Jesus." Phil. 2 : 5. 

I. Mind of Christ Godward. 

(1) Obedience. In life. John 4: 
34. In suffering. JohnlSilL 

(2) Diligent. Mark i : 35 fc; Luke 
2:49. 

(3) Faithful. Heb. 3:1, 2. 

(4) Prayerful. Luke 5 : 16; 6: 12; 
9:28. 

(5) Pure. 1 John 3:2, 3. 

(6) Steadfast. Luke 9:51. 

(7) Spiritually endowed. Luke 4: 
18. 

(8) Resigned. Matt. 26 : 39. 

II. Mind of Christ manward. 

(1) Humble. No reputation. Phil. 
2:67. Menial service. Matt. 11:29. 

(2) Subject to. Parents. Luke 2: 
51. Ordinances. Matt. 3:13-15; 17: 
21. 

(3) Ministering to others. Matt. 
20:28. 

(4) Sympathetic. Matt. 11:28; 
Heb. 4:15. 

(5) Self-sacrifice. Matt. 8:20; 2 
Cor. 8:9. 

(6) Compassion. Luke 7:13; 19: 
41. 

(7) Forbearance. Quiet dignity. 
Matt. 21 : 14. Was abused. Luke 
23:11. Reviled not. Pet. 2:23. 

(8) Forgiving enemies. Luke 23: 
34; Col. 3:13. 

(9) Suffered death with all its hor- 
rors, mental and physical. Phil. 2: 
8; Isa. 53:5. 

(10) Love. Matt. 18:11-13; John 
13:1, 34. 

— ^J. H. Edwards. 

Love 

I. God's love to you. 1 John 4: 
10. 

II. God's love about you. Jude 21. 

III. God's love in you. Rom. 5 : 5. 

— Walter Veazie. 



Lot's Wife 

"Remember Lot's wife. 
32. 



Luke 17: 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 183 



I. Remember her privileges. Faith- 
fully instructed. Related to one of 
God's chosen ones. Warned of the 
danger. 

II. Remember her sin. Presump- 
tion, unbelief, and act. 

III. Remember her fate. Merited, 
sudden, and final. 

(1) Beware of earthly entangle- 
ments. 

(2) Beware of questioning God's 
commands. 

(3) Beware of delays, for they 
are dangerous. 

Christians— What Are They? 

I. They are the children of God. 
Gal. 3 : 26. 

II. They are forgiven. 1 John 2: 
12. 

III. They are justified. Acts 13: 
39. 

IV. They are sanctified. 1 Cor. 
1:1. 

V. They are made nigh unto God. 
Eph. 2 : 13. 

VI. They are complete. Col. 2: 
10. 

VII. They are kings and priests 
unto God. 1 Pet. 2 : 9. 

Peter's Fall 

Seven steps. 

(1) Self-confidence. V. 35. His 
fall has begun. 

(2) Indifference. V. 40. He sleeps 
amid great issues. 

(3) Acts in the energy of the 
flesh. V. 51. The Lord had to undo 
his work. 

(4) Worldly companionship. V. 
69 f ,c. Identified with the enemy. 

(5) Open denial. V. 70. The first 
uttered word. 

(6) Bolder denial. V. U. Adds 
the sin of blasphemy. 

(7) The flesh has full sway. V. 
74. Sinning without restraint. These 
are the steps in every fall. Beware 
of the first. 

—Rev. H. p. Welton, D.D. 

Service 

Luke 17:1-10. 

A. Invitation— Come— Rest. Matt. 
11:28. 

B. Command— Go — Work. Matt. 
28:19; Eph. 4:12. 

I. Service — 

Never at random. Always defi- 
nite. Always in obedience to a Mas- 
ter. Rom. 6 : 16. 



Also : Every act is service. Luke 
11:23; 16:13. 

II. God- 
Calls to service. Acts 13 : 2. 
Fits for service. Acts 1 : 8. 

III. Not a means of Salvation. 
Matt. 5:20; Luke 18:11, 12. 

IV. How rendered — 

(1) With zeal. Eccl. 9:10. Might. 

(2) Humility. Phil. 2:3; Luke 
22 : 24. 

(3) Boldness. Heb. 13:6cf.; 1 
John 2:28; 4:17; 2 Tim. 1:12. 

(4) Unselfishness. 1 Cor. 10:23. 

V. What should prompt service — 

(1) Love — Desire to glorify God; 

(2) Not desire for reward. 

— A. F. HOFFSOMMER. 

Excuses, Hollow 

I. The excuse of unbelief. John 
3 : 12. 

II. The excuse of fear. Luke 19: 
11-27. 

III. The excuse of procrastina- 
tion. Acts 24 : 22-27. 

IV. The excuse of false modesty. 
Num. 13 : 26-33. 

V. The excuse of other business. 
Luke 14:16-24. 

VI. Therefore make no excuses. 
John 4: 31-38. 

VII. Will our excuses stand? 
Acts 26:19-28. 

Christians' Conversation 

I. When to speak. Eccl. 2i\l\ 
Esa. 50:4. 

II. How to speak. 

(1) In well ordered words. Psa. 
50:23. 

(2) Sincerely. 2 Cor. 1 : 12. 

III. What not to speak. 

(1) The former conversation. Eph. 
2:3. 

(2) As sinners. 1 John 4 : 5. 

(3) In vain words. 1 Pet. 1:18. 

(4) In idle words. Matt. 12 : Z(i. 

(5) In filthy words. 2 Pet. 2:7. 

(6) Covetously. Heb. 13 : 5. 

(7) Evil of another. Jas. 4: 11. 

IV. What to speak. 

(1) Pure words. 1 Tim. 4:12; 
1 Pet. 3:2cf.; Eph. 5:4. 

(2) Gospel truth. Phil. 1:27; 
3:20; 1 Pet. 1:15; 3:1. 

V. To whom shall we speak? 

(1) To God. Deut. 5:24; Ex. ZZ\ 
9. 

(2) To sinners. Ezek. ZZ : 8. 

VI. About what shall we speak? 
(1) The Word. Deut. d'.l. 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



(2) God's righteousness. Psa. 71 : 
24. 

(3) God's power. Psa. 145:11. 

— R. W. Lewis. 

The Worth of the Soul 

"For what shall it profit a man, if 
he shall gain the whole world, and 
lose, his own soul?" Mark 8:36. 

I. The value of the soul. ^ 

(1) Its powers and capacities. 

(2) Its immortality. 

(3) The plan of its redemption. 

(4) The conflict it occasions in the 
universe. 

II. The loss of the soul. 

(1) Its nature; — ^the loss, not of 
being, but of holiness, of happiness, 
of heaven, of hope. 

(2) The ways in which it may be 
incurred ; — through open infidelity, 
through gross vice, through formal 
profes^on, through sheer careless- 
ness. 

III. The impossibility of compen- 
sating for the loss of the soul by 
the gain of the world. 

(1) The gain is problematical; the 
loss is unavoidable. 

(2) The gain is ideal; the loss is 
real. 

(3) The gain is temporary; the 
loss is final and irretrievable. 

A Blessed Whosoever 

"For whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved." 
Rom. 10: 13. 

I. The blessing. 

(1) Salvation from guilt. 

(2) Salvation from sin. 

(3) Salvation from misery. 

II. The duty. 

(1) Call on the proper object. 

(2) Call through the proper 
medium. 

(3) Call by the proper aid. 

(4) Call with the proper disposi- 
tions. 

III. The person. 

(1) Of whatsoever nation. 

(2) Of whatsoever rank. 

(3) Of whatsoever age or sex. ^ 

(4) Of whatsoever mental ability 
or culture. 

(5) Of whatsoever moral char- 
acter. 

The Sours Desire for God 

"My soul followeth hard after 
thee." Ps. 63 : 8. 

I. The state of mind here de- 
picted. 



(1) It includes a persuasion that 
God alone is the portion of the soul. 

(2) It includes a choice of God 
as the portion of our soul. 

(3) It includes ardent desires after 
nearness to God. 

(4) It includes earnest use of the 
means which have been appointed to 
bring and to keep us near. 

II. The reasons why this state of 
mind should be cultivated. 

(1) It forms a safeguard against 
temptation. 

(2) It supplies a perpetual stimu- 
lus to devotion. 

(3) It imparts an impulse, con- 
stantly recurring, to do good to our 
own souls, and the souls of others. 

(4) It turns every religious service 
into a source of pleasure. 

Almost Persuaded 

"Almost thou persuadest me to be 
a Christian." Acts 26 : 28. 

I. What is it to be altogether per- 
suaded to be a Christian? 

(1) To believe the Christian re- 
ligion. 

(2) To profess it. 

(3) To reduce it to practice. 

II. What is it to be almost per- 
suaded to be a Christian? 

(1) We may have clear and dis- 
tinct knowledge as to the way of 
salvation by the merits of Christ — 

(2) We may be convinced of the 
desirableness of embracing Christ — 

(3) We may have our feelings 
greatly excited with regard to Christ, 
and the blessings of his salvation — ^ 

(4) We may reform many of our 
evil habits — and yet be only almost 
persuaded to be Christians. 

Joy in Heaven 

"Likewise, I say unto you, There 
is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repent- 
eth." Luke 15 : 10. 

I. The repenting sinner. 

(1) He is convinced of sin. 

(2) He is sorry for it. 

(3) He is alarmed about its conse- 
quences. 

(4) He confesses and renounces it. 

II. The joy felt in heaven in con- 
sequence of his repentance. 

(1) The angels rejoice, because an 
immortal being is delivered from 
guilt and sin. 

(2) The angels rejoice, because 
the glory of God is more conspicu- 
ously displayed. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 185 



(3) The angels rejoice, because ad- 
ditional evidence is afforded of the 
Redeemer's power to save. 

(4) The angels rejoice, because 
they obtain a fresh companion, and 
a new field for the exercise of their 
love and compassion. 

The Way, the Truth and the Life 

'T am the Way, the Truth and the 
Life." John 14 : 6. 

I. If there are souls to-day like 
Thomas, doubtful about whither 
Jesus went and the way they are go- 
ing, Christ's reply ought to settle all 
such fears. *T am the Way, the 
Truth and the Life." Jesus inti- 
mated, "Though I shall be absent 
from you, I will be present in the 
Comforter. I will be the Way to the 
Father's house. Therefore, follow 
me, and you will never be trou- 
bled. 

IL I am the Way to God, for I 
am God. I am the Way home, for I 
am the Home. 

III. You need not seek a terminus, 
but the eternal Way, for we are go- 
ing on together forever. There can 
be no other way, for 'T am the Truth 
and the Life." 

IV. What Jesus said and did in 
three short years are not only truth 
and life, but he is all the unex- 
pressed, infinite truth and righteous- 
ness. All wisdom and knowledge 
find their source in the fastnesses of 
his Godhead. He is the Doctrine 
and the Life, Author and Lover; his 
lips speak what his life lives ; his 
miracles witness the truth; his love 
imparts the truth; his death meets 
the law of truth and justice. He is 
full of grace and truth; dwelHng in 
him and he in us, we realize enough 
of the truth about the future life 
to satisfy the soul. 

V. Without Christ the curtain 
shuts down, the horizon is a little 
circle; with him it is limitless, ever- 
more glorious. What is your life? 
Happy are you if you can answer, 
"For to me to Hve is Christ; to die 
is more of him, to be going on with 
him forever." — E. W. Caswell, D.D. 

The Great Question 

"Dost thou believe on the Son of 
God?" John 9: 35. 

I. The question and the circum- 
stances in which it was proposed. 

(1) It was proposed to one who 
was healed by a miracle— a Jew who 



had opportunity of hearing and 
knowing the Scriptures. 

(2) It was proposed by Christ, so- 
licitous for the welfare of a soul. 

(3) It shows a pattern for minis- 
ters to inquire after the spiritual wel- 
fare of young and old. 

(4) It shows that faith is a per- 
sonal and important thing. 

II. The question itself. 

(1) Christ is the Son of God. 

(2) It is our duty to believe in 
him. 

(3) It is our privilege to believe. 

(4) We must believe in the Son 
of God with our whole heart. 

What evidence have we in our- 
selves that we believe? 

What evidence do we give to those 
around us? — C. 

"Safety First" 

"li any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself." Matt. 16:24. 

I. These words of Jesus do not 
mean occasional acts of self-denial, 
temporary fasts, self-imposed mo- 
ments of hardship. They mean a 
total repudiation of self as the ob- 
ject of love, an unconditional sur- 
render of self as the first object of 
consideration. So, no Christian can 
ever adopt the maxim, "Take care of 
Number One" — unless he makes 
Christ Number One. 

II. "Safety First" may be a very 
good motto if only we define safety 
aright. Whose safety? Certainly not 
ours. The safety of society, the 
safety of others, the safety of the 
kingdom of God. He who puts any- 
thing else first is reversing the Chris- 
tian order. 

III. Is it possible to modify the 
tendency of human nature so as to 
set up another personality than our 
own as "Number One"? Of course 
it is possible. When a man marries, 
if he have a worthy idea of mar- 
riage, he shifts his loyalty from his 
own personality to that of another. 
Every mother knows this experience. 
The whole philosophy of selfishness 
is shattered by the first sight of a 
baby's face, nay, by the first thought 
of the little life, so helpless, so de- 
pendent, yet so divine. 

IV. This is the program of the 
Christian life; Self dethroned, Christ 
enthroned, and then the adoption by 
us of Christ's own standard of val- 
ues. We must care for the things 
he cared for. We must make su- 



i86 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



preme the things which he made su- 
preme. — Rev. Charles C. Albertson, 
D.D. 

The Power o£ Choice 

"Entreat me not to leave thee." 
Ruth 1 : 16. 

Ruth, the loving daughter, clings 
to her mother-in-law Naomi because 
she is fascinated and charmed with a 
holy affection for the God of heaven 
and the people of his kingdom, whom 
Naomi has so devotedly represented 
in her life. Though a Moabitess, she 
forsook her own people for the wor- 
ship of the God of Israel. She was 
called out of the Gentile world to 
enter the line of Christ's ancestry. 
Ruth and Naomi are thus united to 
each other closer than by family ties, 
becoming devoted lovers, like David 
and Jonathan. 

When Boaz married Ruth, Naomi 
found a home for herself with the 
wealthy farmer. They are happy 
again together in one family. The 
baby, Obed, is to become the father 
of Jesse, and Jesse the father of 
King David, and Ruth becomes the 
ancestress of Christ; so that through 
her act of self-denial and devotion 
all the families of the earth are 
blessed. 

I. How little we understand of the 
immense significance of a single, ap- 
parently unimportant decision. By 
Ruth's saying, "Thy people shall be 
my people and thy God my God," 
unspeakable joys came upon her own 
spirit and a world of wealth to pos- 
terity. Is it not so when we leave 
the company of evil persons and unite 
ourselves to the children of God? 
Think of the heirship to the wealth 
of heaven, of the citizenship of the 
saints in light. Let us then come out 
from the kingdom of darkness into 
the kingdom of Christ. 

II. Is not the power of choice, next 
to the glory of existence, the greatest 
blessing heaven has conferred upon 
mortals? Every soul stands at the 
parting of the way, going upward or 
downward. How long halt we when 
we know the immense interests hang- 
ing in the balance of decision! — Rev. 
E. W. Caswell, D.D. 

Divine Love 

"Even so it is not the will of your 
Father which is in heaven, that one 
of these little ones should perish." 
Matt. 18:14. 



(1) The Father's Will. "It is not 
the will of your Father." 

(2) The Saviour's Love. He 
yearns for the little ones' safety. 

(3) The Holy Spirit's Word. He. 
has written it. 

(4) The Source of Joy. The Sal- 
vation of the Children. 

(5) The Light of Hope. Not one 
shall perish. 

Plenty of Room 
"Yet there is room." Luke 14:22. 

I. Where? At the table, in the 
house, in the kingdom of heaven. 
With the King, Jesus himself, with 
his guests, his people, at his table; 
in his large expansive heaven. 

II. For whom? For every sin- 
cere, penitent soul. If you deem 
yourself too great a sinner, read this 
parable and notice how the lame, the 
halt, the blind, the beggars, were in- 
vited to the feast. If you sincerely 
wish to be saved from your sins 
through Christ, if that is your eager 
desire, there is yet room for you! 

III. How long yet? "Yet there is 
room," that is now! Yet, after so 
many refusals? Yes. There is an 
invitation now. Accept it, now. 
"Now is the accepted time." "To- 
day is the day of salvation." 

But also be admonished by that 
little word "yet." To-day yet! Yes. 
But to-morrow perhaps it may be too 
late. Come now. "Yet there is 
room." 

The Water of Life 

"And whosoever will, let him come 
and take of the water of life freely." 
Rev. 22:17. 

I. Survey the beautiful language as 
it regards the gospel of Christ — "the 
Water of Life." 

(1) As to the persons to whom it 
is addressed. 

(2) The source from which it 
springs. 

(3) Its vivifying and resuscitating 
influence. 

II. The freedom with v/hich it is 
bestowed and with which it should 
be received. "Freely." 

III. The unlimited extent to which 
it is addressed. "Whosoever will." 
None who come will be denied. — H. 

At the Door 

"Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock; if any man hear my voice, 
and open the door. I will come in to 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 187 



him, and will sup with him, and he 
with me." Rev. 3 : 20. 

(1) The door of our heart is shut 
against Christ. 

(2) Christ is seeking earnestly and 
importunately to gain admission into 
our heart. 

(3) We ought to throw open the 
door of our heart for the reception 
of Christ. 

(4) If we throw open the door of 
our heart, he will honor us with en- 
dearing and friendly intercourse. 

Price of Redemption 

"For ye are bought with a price." 
1 Cor. 6 : 20. 

I. "Jesus paid it all" is welcome 
news to insolvent debtors. When we 
were slaves to sin, he purchased our 
pardon. When we were stained with 
guilt, he opened the fountain of 
cleansing. Wanderers in a far coun- 
try, he himself became our way 
home ; yea, he walks with us in sweet 
companionship and blessed guidance. 

II. What can we do for him who 
bankrupted himself, became poor that 
we through his poverty might be- 
come rich ! Shall we despise our 
benefactor, refuse his gifts, deny his 
loving kindness, reject his offer of 
liberty? Such ingratitude would be 
indescribable folly. What child could 
thus push aside the mother who bore 
him, loved and reared him, and ever 
watched over him? But a mother 
may forget her child — ^he will not 
forget thee. 

"I gave my life for thee ; 
What hast thou given for me ?" 

III. We have peace by his blood, 
ransom by his cross, heaven by his 
love. Your freedom is purchased, 
but alas, you may love slavery better 
than freedom, the serfdom of Egypt 
better than the glory of Canaan, the 
bondage of Satan better than the lib- 
erty of the sons of God. 

Well may we exclaim, "Blessed 
Jesus, who bore our sins, carried our 
sorrows, was touched with the feel- 
ings of our infirmities, endured the 
cross for us, was glad to pay the 
price of our redemption that we 
might live unto him and with him in 
the everlasting Hfe!" — C. 

The Supreme Question 

"What must I do to be saved?" 
Acts 16:30. 



This question implies: 

(1) The fact that man is lost. 
"What must I do to be saved?" 

(2) That something must be done 
to be saved. "What must I do to 
be saved?" 

(3) That this something to be done 
is imperative. "What must I do to 
be saved?" 

(4) That the penitent soul is will- 
ing to do anything to be saved. 
"What must I do to be saved?" 

(5) That salvation is a personal 
matter. "What must I do to be 
saved ?" 

Christ Knocking at the Heart 

"Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock ; if any man hear my voice, 
and open the door, I will come in to 
him, and will sup with him, and he 
with me." Rev. 3:20. 

I. The Gospel call. The scene in- 
troduced is Christ knocking at the 
door of our hearts for an entrance. 
The human heart is considered as a 
house. It was intended for God. 
The door of the heart is the faculty 
of the will; and it is not sufficient 
that our judgment approves and our 
conscience warns, the will must con- 
sent before we can be saved. 

II. The Gospel duty. "If any man 
hear my voice, and open the door." 
To knock is the Saviour's part; to 
open is ours. Christ will perform 
his work. Let us perform our duty. 
If Christ never knocked, the will 
would never open. It is in conse- 
quence of the merits of Christ that 
light is come into the world. The will 
is not to be coerced ; it may yield to 
the power of suasive reasons. 

The. call is to you now; we have 
nothing to do with to-morrow. 

To open the door is to submit to 
the Gospel method. But this requires 
fixed attention. Hence listening to 
the voice of Christ is necessary. At- 
tend unto his call. 

The claims of gratitude, and regard 
to our present and everlasting happi- 
ness. 

III. The Gospel promise. The 
blessings of the Gospel are intro- 
duced to us under various simili- 
tudes; here called a supper. 

(1) He that admits Christ into his 
heart shall feast on his pardoning 
love. His sins shall be remembered 
no more. 

(2) Christ will bring with him 
peace and holiness. 



1 88 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



(3) You shall have fellowship with 
the saints at the table of the Lord, 
in the house of God, in social 
prayer, etc. 

(4) If faithful, you shall feast 
with Christ in a better world. By 
admitting Christ, heaven is open unto 
you. 

Christ's Messages 

"And when she had so said, she 
went her way, and called Mary her 
sister, secretly; saying, The Master 
is come and calleth for thee. As 
soon as she heard that, she arose 
quickly and came unto him." John 
11:28, 29. ^ 

Bethany is the next spot we should 
visit after Calvary. Calvary cries to 
all the^ world, 'Look on me !" Beth- 
any cries to all the lookers, 'Lean on 
me !" Here we find how he regards 
those he has saved. How he treats 
the sorrowful, the learner, the over- 
careful. In this particular instance 
we may learn : 

I. The character of Christ's mes- 
sages to his friends. "He calleth for 
thee," that is, he desires to see you. 

(1) Its benignity. No stern com- 
mand. He rules by love. 

(2) Its authority. "The Master is 
come." Christ's presence gives 
weight to his message. 

(3) Its personality. "For thee!" 

(4) Its suitability. Mary's heart 
was well-nigh broken ; what was 
more likely to cheer her? 

II. We learn the best way to con- 
vey his messages. He chose the most 
desirable messenger, one who loved 
both himself and Mary. So the Gos- 
pel message is best borne by lovers 
of Jesus and souls. 

(1) Without ostentation. "Se- 
cretly." No parade, no assumption 
of dignity. 

_ (2) Prudently. "Secretly." Pub- 
licity might have defeated the Lord's 
end in this case. There are cases 
when great prudence needs to be 
blended with our zeal or else we 
miss our aim. 

(3) Plainly. Rhetoric sometimes, 
like a too great profusion of flowers 
in a garland, obscures the face it is 
meant to adorn. 

III. How Christ's messages are 
treated by his friends. 

(1) She listened to it. "Of 
course," you say. But do we always? 
are not our ears often deaf to his 
calls ? 



(2) She was influenced by it. She 
invented no excuse; she might have 
easily; but she obeyed. 

(3) She obeyed at once. You 
obey. Do it at once. 

Acquaintance With God 

"Acquaint now thyself with him, 
and be at peace, thereby good shall 
come unto thee." Job 22 : 21. 

I. What is implied in this ac- 
quaintance ? 

(1) Knowledge. 

(2) Love. 

(3) Enjoyment. 

(4) Intercourse. 

II. The means for attaining it: 

(1) The Word. 

(2) The Spirit's influence. 

(3) Prayer. 

(4) Faith in Christ. 

III. The time to commence it — 
"Now." 

(1) It is God's time. 

(2) It is the only certain time. 

IV. The blessed result of it: 

(1) Peace. 

(2) Good. 

Godliness Profitable 

"Godliness is profitable unto all 
things." 1 Tim. 4:8. 

I. The nature of Godliness. 

(1) It consists in loving God. Not 
a cold indifferent respect, nor a wild 
enthusiasm. 

(2) Serving God. Directly. As 
Nehemiah when he built the wall. 
Paul in preaching. Indirectly. Nehe- 
miah when he acted as cup-bearer. 
Paul when making tents. 

(3) Honoring God. 

II. The profit of godliness. 

(1) Temporally. 

(2) Spiritually; supporting under 
afflictions, and opening sources of 

""(3) Eternally.— W. R. 

Dedication to God 

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, 
by the mercies of God, that ye pre- 
sent your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable to God, which is your 
reasonable service." Rom, 12 : 1. 

I. The nature of the sacrifice to be 
offered. 

( 1 ) Its special character— the whole 
man, body, soul, and spirit. 

(2) Its properties — living, holy, ac- 
ceptable, i.e., spiritual, conformed to 
divine appointment. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 189 



II. The means by which he urges 
them to comply. 

(1) He employs great tenderness. 

(2) He manifests much paternal 
affection. 

(3) He urges the beneficence of 
God. 

(4) He urges the reasonableness 
of the duty. Because God has a 
right to demand it. Christ expects 
it. The world looks for it. It is 
reasonable in itself. Wise and safe. 
Rational that a man should live to 
God.— G. O. 

The Conversion of Lydia 

Acts 16:14, 15, 40. 

I. She was in the way of Good; 
"The place where prayer was wont 
to be made." 

II. With open heart: ''Whose 
heart the Lord opened," but, no 
doubt, she, too, was active in main- 
taining the attitude of readiness to 
receive. The Holy Ghost is always 
in advance of us when we are try- 
ing to find our way. 

III. With open mind: She "at- 
tended unto" what the apostle told 
her. Therefore, the Holy Spirit 
could continue his work. "The Spirit 
cannot serve as a reminder to a 
vacuum." 

IV. Open mind brought open 
mouth. She instantly made public 
acknowledgment of Christ — was bap- 
tized — started in the first path of 
duty. 

V. Open hand and open house: 
"Come into my house ^ and abide." 
She instantly put her life and pos- 
sessions at the disposal of Christ. 

Learn household religion. 

Learn Christian hospitality. 

From this "first convert in Eu- 
rope" learn to practice openness of 
heart, mind, mouth, hand, house. — 
Rev. T. S. Henderson, D.D. 

Conversion of the Jailer 

Acts 16:16-34. 

I. What does it teach about sud- 
den conversions? 

II. Is conversion ever accomplished 
v/ith violent emotions? 

III. Did the jailer wait to mend 
himself morally first? 

IV. What was his sense of need? 
, V. What is the condition of sal- 
\ vation ? 

VI. What is the condition of 
church membership? 



VII. How soon ought you to join 
the Church? 

VIII. What evidences of regenera- 
tion did the jailer show? — Rev. T. S. 
Henderson, D.D. 

Jesus' Love 

"Unto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sin in his own 
blood." Rev. 1:5. 

I. Jesus is the infinite Lover ; he 
loved, he loveth, he will love forever 
more. He loveth enough to die for 
us that he might loose us from our 
sins by his precious blood. 

All the disciples of Jesus had 
passed away but John, the one whom 
Jesus loved with a special affection. 
John, on the lonely island of Patmos, 
in banishment, believed that the Sa- 
viour loved him still ; and hile he 
believed, Christ himself appeared 
unto him, and told him to write the 
things "which thou hast seen and the 
things which shall be hereafter." 

II. In writing the Saviour's warn- 
ings to the seven churches, the climax 
of his words to each one was, "He 
loveth us still." Although you have 
fallen away from your first love, he 
hath come from heaven to earth 
again to bid you come, to win you 
to his embrace. You, who have loved 
the world of lust, of passion, of 
drink, of gold, of power, of all sin- 
ful pleasure — hear me, my fallen chil- 
dren : He loveth us still ! Return, 
ye wanderers, return, and help to 
sing the everlasting song, "Unto him 
be glory and dominion and power 
forever and ever." 

The Friend of Sinners 

"This man receiveth sinners." 
Luke 15:2. 

This is the Pharisees' taunt at the 
merciful ministry of Jesus. 

I. What would they have done 
with sinners? They would have cast 
them out from their holy society and 
prided themselves on that as a most 
worthy action. There is nothing so 
cruel as man's inhumanity to man. 
Many a sinner has been driven to 
final despair by the scorn and con- 
tempt which his brethren heaped 
upon him. Now, what would-be 
righteous men sneer at is the very 
essence of the Gospel. 

II. It is this message that Jesus 
receives sinners that has lifted many 
a wretch out of his misery and made 
him a new man. Every humble soul 



I90 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



that has come repentant to the Friend 
of sinners remembers to the end of 
his life the solace that came into his 
heart when he heard these words : 
There is a place for you at Jesus' 
side. He is shocked at hearing men 
speak disdainfully of that mercy 
which gave him the assurance that 
his guilt has been removed, which 
lifted the gloom from his aching 
conscience and filled his heart with 
the joy of salvation. We who have 
cast ourselves on the mercy of Jesus 
and trust only in his grace think 
very highly of this opprobrium which 
was cast on his ministry. Though 
our sins are red like crimson and 
numberless as the sands upon the 
seashore, we know that the mercy 
of God is greater still. And we are 
sure that God who spared not his 
own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all, will freely give us all other 
things which are necessary to stay 
our misery. We rejoice in the con- 
descension at which men who do not 
realize the bane and terror of an 
evil conscience mock. We glory in 
the pity of our heavenly Father who 
removes our transgressions from us, 
as far as the east is from the west, 
in. We love this divine Friend 
who does not think himself too good 
to associate with us, to call us his 
brethren, and to lend us his all- 
powerful aid, that after our worthless 
life we may begin life over again 
in his companionship and under his 
guidance. — D. 

See! 

"See that ye refuse not him that 
speaketh." — Hebrews 12 : 25. 

There are three leading thoughts 
that suggest themselves in connec- 
tion with these words. Give them in 
the order in which they present 
themselves. 

I. The Speaker. Why should he 
be hearkened to by us attentively, 
reverently, and obediently? 

(1) His exalted dignity. The 
parable of the wicked husbandman. 
"I will send My Son." "God, who, 
at sundry times," etc. 

(2) The importance of his mes- 
sage. It tells of a deliverance from 
sin, sorrow and death for all who 
will believe. The imprisoned miners, 
how they guarded their light ; the res- 
cuers' light. This Gospel is man's 
only light here. 

(3) The spirit that moves him to 



speak. If a man is my friend, he 
may tell me plain truths without 
offense. How can anybody doubt 
Christ's interest in his welfare ? 

II. The Refusal. What constitutes 
a refusal in the sense of the text? 

(1) Not to hsten to the speaker is 
a refusal. What the Jews said to 
Moses. What followed; didn't want 
to hear. Oh, the multitudes that 
can't hear! But oh, the multitudes 
that won't hear! 

(2) To object to the claims of his 
message, etc. When a man says, 'T 
don't see the need of Christ as a 
Saviour!" 'T won't surrender my- 
self!" "I am as good as some pro- 
fessing Christians !" 

(3) To delay obedience thereto, etc. 
''Not now !" Poor deluded one ! 
God says, "Remember now," etc. 

III. The Warning. "See," etc. 
"The uplifted warning finger." "No 
escape.',' 

A Marvelous Magnet 

"I, if I be lifted up," etc. John 
12 : 32. 

(1) Attractive force lies in a cru- 
cified Saviour. 

(2) To himself draws all men. 
Force is love, promise of rest. 

(3) This force is exercised through 
the Holy Spirit, but he uses instru- 
ments. Draws gradually, gently, and 
effectually. 

(4) This implies man by nature 
is a long way off. 

(5) Men will not come to him un- 
less he draws them. Are you com- 
ing? Come and welcome. 

The Obedience Test 

"If ye love me, keep my command- 
ments." John 14 : 14. 

The true test of love to Christ — ' 
obedience. 

I. It is the test which the Bible 
prescribes. 

II. It is the test which reason sanc- 
tions. 

III. It is the test to which the re- 
newed heart responds. 

IV. It is the test which experience 
ratifies. 

V. It is the test which supersedes 
all others. 

Three Great Questions 

I. What have I done? — The care- \ 
less sinner. Jer. 8 : 6. 

II. What must I do ? — The anxious 
sinner. Acts 16:20. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 191 



III. What shall I do?— The unde- 
cided sinner. Matt. 27 : 22. 

These tell the progress of a soul 
from indifference to anxiety, then to 
decision for, or against Christ. 

The Calls of Christ 

(1) Follow Me. John 1:43. 

(2) Come to Me. Matt. 11 : 28. 

(3) Learn of Me. Matt. 11 :29. 

(4) Abide in Me. John 15:4. — 
Robert E. Speer. 

Christ Our Keeper 

I. Kept by his power. 1 Peter 
1:5. 

II. Kept from falling. Jude 24. 

III. Kept from all evil. 2 Thess. 
3:3. 

IV. Kept in peace. Isaiah 26 : 3. 

V. Kept as the apple of his eye. 
Deut. 32 : 10. 

VI. Kept from the temptation. 
Rev. 3 : 10. 

VII. Kept for eternal glory. John 
17:12. 

Progress in Grace 

I. Saved by grace. Eph. 2 : 9. 

II. Standing in grace. Rom. 5 : 21. 

III. Taught by grace. Titus 2 : 12. 
IV Growing in grace. 2 Peter 

3:18. 

V. Speaking in grace. Col. 4 : 6. 

VI. Ministering grace. 1 Pet. 
4:10. 

Ways of Knocking 

1 Thess. 5:17. 

"Pray without ceasing" is a Di- 
vine precept, and constant need re- 
quires constant help. Asking, Seek- 
ing, and Knocking are three special 
features of real prayer. Asking is 
the simplicity of prayer, and Knock- 
ing is the importunity of prayer. 
Prayer should be the key of the day, 
and the lock of the night. "Knock 
and it shall be opened unto you," is 
the promise of the Lord Jesus Him- 
self. There are three Knocks all 
should avoid — ■ 

(1) The Timid Knock. Want of 
faith. James 1 : 6. 

(2) The Runaway Knock. Want 
of patience. Ps. 40:1. 

(3) The Late Knock Want of 
time. Luke 13:25. 

There are five proper ways of 
Knocking — 

(1) Knock Early. Whilst you are 
young. Ps. 5:3. 



(2) Knock Earnestly. With all 
your heart. James 5 : 17, 18. 

(3) Knock Distinctly. With sim- 
ple words. Matt. 7 : 7. 

(4) Knock Repeatedly. With im- 
portunity. 1 Thess. 5 : 17. 

(5) Knock Expectantly. With pa- 
tient waiting. Ps. 27 : 4. 

A little girl, about four years of 
age, being asked, "Why do you pray 
to God?" replied, "Because I know 
he hears me, and I love to pray to 
him." "But, how do you know he 
hears you?" was the further inquiry. 
Putting her little hand to her heart, 
she said ,"I know he does, because 
there is something here that tells me 
so."— Rev. C. Edwards. 

Making Excuse 

"And they all, with one consent, 
began to make excuse." Luke 14 : 1. 

I. Notice the provision made — "All 
things are now ready." 

(1) On earth. Redemption pro- 
vided — promise recorded — Holy Spirit 
prepared to sanctify. 

(2) In heaven. Glory secured. 

II. The invitation addressed. 
"Come." 

(1) Who are bid to come? All 
to whom God sends the message. A 
great privilege. 

(2) What does it invite us to do? 
Not to prepare a feast, but to come 
to one already provided and receive 
it as a blessing to be desired. 

III. The conduct too generally 
pursued. "To make excuse." 

(1) The Jews. Did not find in 
him what they expected in the Mes- 
siah. 

(2) The Gentiles. Did not like the 
want of philosophy in the gospel; 
and esteemed it foolishness. 

(3) The world. Men of the world 
are too busy to give religion serious i 
thought. ' 

4. The young and the frivolous. 
It forbids their pleasures. 

5. The middle-aged, etc. Have too 
many cares and troubles to attend 
to it. 

Then, if we fail to find mercy at 
last, it will not be God's fault. He 
has provided and invited, but we 
have neglected. What a mercy that 
the invitation still says, "Come." 

Divine Riches 

I. Riches of mercy. Eph. 2:4. 

II. Riches of grace. Eph. 1 : 7. 



192 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



III. Riches of goodness. Rom. 
2:4. 

IV. Riches of glory. Phil. 4 : 10. 

V. Riches of God. Rom. 11 : 33. 
There is a mine of wealth in these 

few passages of Scripture.- 

Jesus the Emancipator 

"Behold, thy King cometh unto 
thee." Zech. 9:9-17. 

This stream of exalted prediction, 
sweet as the refrain of an angel's 
hymn, was fulfilled when, in lowly 
triumph, Jesus entered Jersualem at 
the beginning of the week in which 
he died. See Matt. 21:5. What 
contrasts meet in the prophet's 
words ! 

I. Jesus is King— first King and 
then Saviour. The King who saves 
is lowly, his steed is not the richly 
caparisoned war-horse, but the hum- 
ble ass. Unlike earthly monarch, he 
needs neither chariot nor battle-bow 
for the overthrow of his foes, but 
speaks peace to the nations; as 
though waving his hand in priestly 
benediction over the troubled waters, 
and lo, there is a great calm. If we 
would be truly saved by Jesus, he 
must be the enthroned King of our 
hearts, and enter in lowly triumph 
over our wills. 

II. When this has taken place, the 
prisoners are emancipated from their 
prisons. In Eastern lands, liable to 
long spells of drought, it is customary 
to hew cisterns out of the solid rock 
for water-storage. When these were 
empty they provided useful retreats 
or hiding-places. The terrified peas- 
antry would shelter there when the 
enemy was scouring the country. Are 
there not many of God's people in 
a similar plight? They are caught 
in the snares and toils of malignant 
foes, or led captive by the devil at 
his will, or are in deep despondency, 
or are imprisoned by adverse cir- 
cumstances. Yet they are prisoners 
of hope. There is a sure and certain 
hope of their deliverance. They shall 
ultimately emerge from their prisons, 
as Peter did, led by the angel. God 
has entered into covenant relationship 
with them. And because of the blood 
of the everlasting covenant he will 
remember them and emancipate them 
from their thraldom. Wherever they 
are, and however thick-ribbed^ the 
walls of their prison, their Saviour- 
King will come to their rescue. God 
declares that to-day he will render 



doable all his past love.— Rev. F. B. 
MiYER, D.D. 

The Pentecostal Gift 

"Ye shall receive power." Acts 
1:8. 

Power to make the mountains of 
sin flow away into the sca of forget- 
fulness. Power to level the little 
hills of self till the soul is one beau- 
tiful plain of harmony and fruitful- 
ness. Power to cut a channel for the 
river of life and peace, ever flowing 
through this garden of the Lord. 
Power to wash your spirit whiter 
than the snow, like the purity of 
Paradise, where birds sing, flowers 
grow and hope eternal springs from 
the soil of the soul. 

The very atmosphere of this life- 
giving power is restful, luminous with 
the light of the sun of righteousness. 
All the glory and joy of the first 
Eden is re-created where sin once 
abounded. "All power belongeth unto 
God." "All power in heaven and 
in earth is given unto me," says 
Jesus, and the Holy Spirit on Pen- 
tecost transmitted this power of deity 
to the early church. Power to be- 
come like Christ, to witness for him, 
live and die for him, and reign eter- 
nally with him. 

Many Scripture passages express 
characteristics of this power, such 
as "endued with power from on 
high." "filled with all the fulness of 
God," "create in me a clean heart, 
O God," "sanctified wholly and pre- 
served blameless unto the coming of 
the Lord Jesus Christ," "have ye re- 
ceived the Holy Spirit since ye be- 
lieved?" Are not many of our 
hymns, prayers for this purity? 

God's words thus Hft up an Ideal 
we all may reach, and our songs sing 
of an altitude we may obtain. The 
whole Christian world should pray 
that this baptism of fire may burn 
up all the dross of sin and make man- 
kind fully ready for Christ's second 
coming and for eternal residence with 
him in glory. — Rev. E. W. Caswell, 
D.D. 

Invitations 

(1) "I stand and knock." Rev. 
3 : 20. 

(2) "I came to call sinners." 
Luke 5 : 32. 

(3) "Come unto Me and Rest." , 
Matt. 11:28. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 193 



(4) "Come unto Me and drink." 
John I'.ZI. 

(5) "Come now, let us reason." 
Isa. 1:18. 

(6) "Come to the waters." Isa. 
55:1. 

(7) "Come, all things are ready." 
Luke 14:17. 

(8) "No wise cast out." John 

(9) "Come, Whosoever will." 
Rev. 22:17. 

Follow 

What is it to Follow? 

(1) Forsaking the old life. 2 Cor. 
5:17. 

(2) Obeying the Lord's word. 
John 21 : 22. 

(3) Looking not behind. Luke 9: 
62. 

(4) Looking unto Jesus. Heb. 
12:2. 

(5) Onward to the end. Phil. 
3:13, 14. 

(6) Watching unto prayer. Mark 
13 : 2>2>. 

Four Steps in the New Birth 

"Ye must be born again." John 
3:5. 

I. Step — Conviction. John 16:8,9. 
IL Step — ^Repentance. 2 Cor. 7 : 10. 
in. Step— Faith. John d'.ZI, 
IV. Step — Forgiveness. 1 John 
7:9. 

— Wm. D. Lau master. 

A Question in Five Words. 

John 5:6; last clause. 

I. Wilt — Are you willing? Jno. 
d'.Til \ last clause. 

II. Thou— Personal. 2 Cor. 5 : 10. 

III. Be made — Resignation. Psa. 
49:6-7. 

IV. Whole— Complete. Mark 10: 
52. 

— A. M. Clemence. 

\ 
Temptation. 

Christian life is a warfare — Three 
great enemies, the world, the flesh 
and the devil. 

James 1 : 2, 12. These verses show 
that temptation may be made a bless- 
ing. 

I. 1 Pet. 1:6, 7. The cutting of 
the diamond gives sparkle, the bur- 
f; nishing of the gold gives luster. 
I How to overcome? 
r II. By looking to Christ. 1 Cor. 
10:13, 2 Pet. 2:9. 

III. Christ having been tempted 



knows how to deliver. Heb. 2 : 18, 
4:15. 

IV. The indwelling Word helps 
us. ^ Rev. 3:10. 

Giving a testimony when tempted, 
helps us. Rev. 12: 11. 

V. All are subject to temptation, 
therefore there is need of prayer and 
watchfulness. Gal. 6:1. Matt. 
26:41. 

-H. F. S. 

Paul and Felix 

"And as he reasoned of righteous- 
ness, temperance, and judgment to 
come."— Acts 24:25. 

I. The subject matter of Paul's 
preaching. 

(1) Righteousness; involves the 
idea of being just in one's dealings 
with God and man. 

(2) Temperance; in eating; in 
drinking ; in all things. Intemperance 
is ruinous to the body, to the soul, 
to the family, to the church, and to 
society at large. 

(3) Judgment. Note (1) certainty 
of this, as evident from Scripture, 
from reason, from conscience; (2) 
its necessity and (3) its unalterable 
decision. 

II. The effect produced. "Felix 
trembled." 1, on account of the 
wretched state in which he lived; 
2, because of the doom that awaited 
him. 

III. The answer. "Go thy way.*' 
Consider this as addressed to (1) 
God, (2) to the Spirit, (3) to the 
minister. 

IV. The resolution. The "con- 
venient season." Note its danger for 
the sinner gets worse; no time more 
favorable than the present will ever 
arrive ; no means more favorable will 
ever be used ; God will never be more 
willing than he is now. 

Sowing and Reaping 

"Be not deceived ; God is not 
mocked," etc. Gal. ^\1, 8. 

I. Before reaping there must have 
been seed, soil, the influences of 
heaven, seed-time, and harvest. 

II. When seed sown, hidden until 
it germinates. 

III. Is not lost, the summer re- 
veals it, and the harvest renders it 
back. 

IV. Kind of fruit gathered depends 
upon the seed sown. 

V. Seed takes a while to bring 
forth fruit. Spring, summer, and 



194 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



autumn must revolve, but there must 
and will be an eternal harvest. What 
shall the harvest be? 

Gospel, a Full 
Rom. 1 : 16. 

I. Keynote to the epistle. 

(1) Justification by faith intro- 
duced Rom. 1. 

(2) Sanctification by the Spirit. 
Rom. 8:1. 

(3) Consecration for service. Rom. 
12:1. 

II. Essentials and theme — 

(1) Jesus living, our example. 1 
Pet. 2:21. 

(2) Jesus dying, our redeemer. 
Tit. 2:14. 

(3) Jesus buried, our scapegoat. 
Lev. 16:21. 

(4) Christ risen, our justifier. 
Rom. 4 : 25. 

(5) Christ ascended, our head. 
Col. 1 : 18. 

(6) Christ coming, our hope. Tit. 
2:13. 

God's Way 

I. Its Characteristics. 

(1) A way of truth. Psa. 25:5. 

(2) A way of mercy. Psa. 25 : 10. 

(3) A way of obedience. Psa. 
119:32. 

(4) A way of peace. Prov. 3 : 17. 

(5) A way of hoHness. Isa. 35:8. 

(6) A way of safety. Isa. 35 : 9. 

(7) A way of prosperity. Gen. 
44:56. 

II. Natural Man Ignorant Must 
Be Taught. 

Psa. 27:11, "Teach me," Psa. 
25:4, "Show me;" Psa. 25:5, "Lead 
me." 

III. Who May Know God's Way? 

(1) The meek. 1 Pet. 5:5. 

(2) The obedient. Jno. 7:17. 

(3) The man of faith. Acts 
3:16; John 3:16. 

IV. How May He Learn? 
Through Jesus Christ. Jno. 6 : 40 ; 

Jno. 8:12; Jno. 10:28; Jno. 10:9. 
—A. H. Wardle. 

Acceptance, Ground of 

I. God shows the only ground of 
acceptance. Gen. 4 : 7. 

II. Like Job, see true condition be- 
fore salvation. Job. 42:1-9. 

III. The only acceptable time now. 
2 Cor. 6:2. 

IV. Christ the only acceptable 
offering. Ofifering had to be perfect, 



before accepted. Lev. 22 : 21 ; Heb. 
2:10; Heb. 10:1-18. 

V. We are accepted in Christ only. 
Eph. 1 : 6. 

VI. Our labor only acceptable in 
Christ. 2 Cor. 5 : 9. 

—J. E. Wolfe. 

The Sinner's Saviour 

"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.'* 
Luke 18:37. 

There are many incidents in the 
Word that reveal the great love of 
Christ for lost and despairing souls, 
but none that reveals it more ten- 
derly than this scene of the Jericho 
road, where he meets the poor blind 
beggar, and, touched by his condition, 
pauses on his journey to heal him. 

I. The blind man's condition is a 
type of the sinner's. 

(1) He was blind. All the beauties 
of God's creation were closed to him. 
There are two worlds, a physical and 
a spiritual. As this man was blind 
to the physical, so the sinner is to 
the spiritual. He knows not the joy 
of pardon and doubts its reality. 

The natural heart" receiveth not the 
things of the kingdom. 1 Corinthians 
2:14; Ephesians 2 : 3. 

(2) He was helpless. "Had suf- 
fered many things of many physi- 
cians.'] Has lost faith in external 
remedies, but as he hears of Jesus is 
filled with emotion and hope. John 
8:34; Ephesians 2:8-10. 

II. The blind man's action must 
be the action of the sinner. 

(1) He placed himself in Christ's 
way. Difficulties were before him 
and the crowd tried to keep him 
back, but he allowed none of these 
to hinder him. John 5 : 40. 

(2) He surrendered himself to 
Christ. If he had any preconceived 
notions as to how he should be 
healed he cast them aside. John 
7:17. 

(3) He improved his opportunity. 
Had he not been healed then he never 
would have been healed. This was 
Christ's last trip to Jerusalem. "Jesus 
of Nazareth passeth by." 

Freedom from Sin 

"If the Son shall make you free, 
ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36. 

These words of Christ were spoken 
to correct a wrong meaning which 
the Jews had connected with his pre- 
vious statement : "If ye continue in 
my word, then are ye my disciples 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 195 



indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free." 

I. The Lord had not spoken of 
political liberty, as the Jews had 
wrongly understood him, but of es- 
sential liberty, a liberty that really 
is liberty. That is what the words 
in the original signify. 

II. The freedom of which Jesus 
speaks is the freedom of the perfect 
man in Christ. The person who is 
not in bondage to ignorance, to pas- 
sion, to lust, whose every power can 
exert itself in accordance with the 
great purposes for which it was be- 
stowed by the Creator, and who in 
the exercise of his God-given knowl- 
edge, skill, strength of character, and 
love, freely chooses to serve God 
and his fellowman — he, he only is 
the truly free man. You may take 
away his physical liberty and throw 
him into prison for speaking God's 
truth, as was done to the Christian 
martyrs ; you may take away his so- 
cial and political liberty, as was done 
to many a Christian slave in the early 
days of Christianity; but you cannot 
take away his essential liberty. His 
thought, the worship of his soul, his 
faith, cannot be chained and incar- 
cerated. Freely his believing heart 
communicates with God and mingles 
its prayers with the myriad prayers 
of God's children the world over. 
That is a freedom worth having and 
striving for. 

III. One hundred and forty-sije 
years ago the founders of the North 
American Republic declared their in- 
dependence from foreign rule and es- 
tablished a government on the basis 
of political liberty and equality. It 
was a noble act, worthy to be re- 
membered for generations. It is 
proper that the event is commemo- 
rated every year. But even the free- 
dom that was proclaimed from Lib- 
erty Hall must be hallowed to all its 
possessors by the greater freedom 
which only Jesus, the great Libera- 
tor of the race from its worst foes, 
sin, death, and the devil, can bestow. 
The happiest American is he who 
traces his liberty not only to the 
Declaration of Independence but also 
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. — D. 

The Clear Call 

"If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be per- 
suaded though one rose from the 
dead." Luke 16:31. 



I. The Scriptures are given us for 
the purpose of making us wise unto 
salvation. They are sufficient. Even 
the Old Testament Bible answered 
this purpose perfectly. The request 
of Dives that one might be sent from 
the dead to call his impenitent breth- 
ren on earth to repentance, is re- 
fused on the ground that their needs 
are already amply provided for. The 
oracles of God were committed to 
their nation. If they wished infor- 
mation regarding any doctrine, the 
Bible could furnish it. If they need- 
ed correction of their evil ways, the 
Bible was ringing with the most 
authoritative warnings against every 
kind of iniquity. If they wished 
for a guide unto holy living, in- 
struction in practical righteousness, 
there was no better code of mor- 
als than their Bible. If they need- 
ed comfort in affliction, there was 
no book that addressed the bruised 
heart in soothing terms as the 
Bible. 

II. With this Book God has con- 
nected his great power, making it 
able to produce every salutary effect 
in the heart of man. The study of 
this Book has received the divine 
promise of exceptional blessings. 

III. It is folly and insolence, after 
God has been at such pains to pro- 
claim to us the whole counsel for 
our salvation, for men to desire a 
different revelation. The Jews 
missed their Messiah when he had 
come among them, full of grace and 
truth; they were still looking for 
another. So many in our day miss 
the clear, urgent and loving call of 
God in his Holy Book ; they pretend 
they would believe a specter from 
the unseen world rather than the in- 
comparable record of God's right- 
eousness and love in the Bible. How 
do they know they would? — D. 

The Well That Satisfies the Soul's 
Thirst 

**Ho, every one that thirsteth!" 
Isa. 55 : 1-9. 

There are things which money can- 
not buy. It is absurd to bring gold 
or silver or any such equivalent for 
them, for they are without price. 
They therefore elude the rich, who 
have acquired the habit of supposing 
that money is the only medium of 
exchange, and who find it hard to 
think of wealth other than that which 
passes current in the market; whilst 



196 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



they are within the reach of those 
who have no money, but who are 
sorely athirst. 

II. It is highly necessary that God 
should call the attention of the Jew- 
ish people to these unpurchasable 
possessions. Their life in Babylon 
had become so luxurious that there 
was danger of their losing sight of 
the great facts of the spiritual world. 
It was needful for them to be re- 
minded that the immortal thirst of 
the soul cannot be quenched by 
waters whose source is the depth of 
the earth, though the wells be deep 
as Sychar's ; and that its hunger can- 
not be satisfied with the provision 
beneath which the tables of a Dives 
groan. 

III. True satisfaction — that which 
is really bread, the fatness that de- 
lights the soul — can only be obtained 
where the coins of this world do not 
pass current ; in fellowship with him 
whose voice is ever speaking in the 
marts of commerce, saying, "Ho, 
every one that thirsteth, come ye ! 
Hearken unto me ! buy wine and 
milk ; eat ye that which is good !" 

IV. These gifts of the spiritual 
world by which the soul lives are 
given in covenant. Each man must 
enter for himself into covenant re- 
lationship with God. Yet in the 
deepest sense, the covenant has been 
already made on the behalf of all 
faithful souls, by their Representa- 
tive, who here looms out, amid the 
mists of the dim past, in the un- 
mistakable glory of the Son of Man. 
—Rev. F. B. Meyer, D.D. 

The Great Choice 

"No man can serve two masters." 
Matt. 6:24. 

"Ye cannot serve God and Mam- 
mon." The wise man builds upon a 
rock; the foolish upon the sand. 
They that be wise shall shine with 
the glory of God, brighter than the 
stars. The fooHsh shine with the 
glory of gold. The wise enter the 
narrow life ; the foolish, the broad 
way to death. The wise take no 
anxious thought for the morrow ; the 
foolish make every provision for 
earthly things. 

I, There can be no real compro- 
mise between good and evil ; no third 
or neutral position regarding moral 
questions. He that is not for Christ 
is against him. Every one rnust 
choose as Moses did, who cfibse 



rather to suffer affliction with the 
people of God than to enjoy the 
pleasures of sin for a season. Joshua 
cried out, "Choose you this day whom 
ye will serve," and Elijah ex- 
claimed, "How long halt ye between 
two opinions?" We must decide 
which road we will take, up the 
rugged Hill Difficulty or down the 
gilded path to ruin. If we follow 
him whose footsteps were stained 
with blood, up Calvary, we shall 
reach the realms of light; while 
away downward is the night that 
knows no morning. "For what shall 
it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul?" 

II. Abraham Lincoln said regard- 
ing slavery : "A house divided against 
itself cannot stand ; it will become all 
the one thing or all the other. This 
government cannot endure half slave 
and half free." Neither can an indi- 
vidual morally occupy such an anom- 
alous position ; he must choose for 
God or Satan, holiness or sinfulness, 
forever and ever. — C. 

Season of Grace 

2 Cor. 7:10. 

Sin, repentance and pardon are 
like to the three vernal months of 
the year — March, April, and May. 

I. Sin comes in like March, blus- 
tering, stormy, and full of bold vio- 
lence. 

II. Repentance succeeds like April 
— showery, weeping, and full of 
tears. 

III. Pardon follows like May — 
springing, singing, full of joys and 
flowers. 

IV. Our eyes must be full of 
April with the sorrow of repentance. 

V. Then our hearts shall be full 
of May with the true joy of forgive- 
ness. 

Peace: False and True 
I. False. 

(1) The peace of ignorance. Psa. 
7Z:Z-6\ Luke 12:16-19. Their end. 
Psa. 73:17-20; Luke 12:20, 21. 

(2) The peace of self-righteous- 
ness. Luke 18:11, 12. Their end. 
Matt. 23:27, 32>. 

(3) The peace of a seared con- 
science. 1 Tim. 4:1, 2. Their end. 
2 Pet. 2 : 20, 21. 

IL True. Jno. 14:27; Eph. 2:14; 
Jno. 20: 19, 20; Rom. 5:1. 

III. How to keep it. Isa. 26 : 3. 
—Rev. H, p. Welton, D.D. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 197 



Steps to Christ 

"I will arise and go to my Father." 
Luke 15:18. 

Let us consider a few of the steps 
necessary for the sinner in turning 
to God. 

First. Conviction. He must feel 
his guilt, that he is a sinner, that 
he has sinned against God, and as 
such has no part in his kingdom. 
Do not mistake conviction for con- 
version. We have often seen souls 
buried in tears through conviction, 
who, through acceptance into church 
fellowship or the partaking of the 
Lord's Supper, were considered 
"Consecrated to God." Conviction is 
nothing more than the opening of 
the eyes to behold the condition and 
real danger of the soul. 

Second. Being convicted of the 
error of his way, it requires action. 
He must have a desire for forgive- 
ness; a willingness to seek redemp- 
tion in Jesus Christ. This evidence 
he shows by coming to the altar of 
prayer, or some other such step. 

Third. Faith. He must have faith 
in Jesus Christ, that his blood is suf- 
ficient to cleanse from all sin. 

Fourth. A complete surrender to 
God. Not for a day, nor for a night, 
but once and for all: "From this 
day on until death will I serve thee." 
No hidden sins or pleasures of this 
life can be withheld from God; it 
requires a full surrender, and then, 
and then only, the blessing will 
come. — Rev. J. F. Grube. 

Christian Characteristics 

(1) Confessing Christ.. Matt. 10: 
32 ; Jno. 4:15. 

(2) Controlling body. 1 Cor. 
9:27; Col. 3:5. 

(3) Hungering after righteousness. 
Matt. 5:6; Luke 6:21. 

(4) Humble. Jas. 4:10; 1 Pet. 
5:5, 6. 

(5) Rejoicing in God. Psa. 33 : 1 ; 
Heb. 3 : 18. 

(6) Righteous. Luke 1:6; Rom. 
4:5. 

(7) Imitator of Christ. 2 Cor. 
4:10; Phil. 2:5. 

(8) In Christ. Jno. 15:1-7; Col. 
3 : 3. 

*(9) Steadfast. 1 Cor. 15:58; f.c; 
Col. 2 : 5. 

(10) Self-sacrificing. Mark 10:28- 
30; Luke 5:27-28. 

(11) Trusting. Job 13:15; Psa. 
56:4, 11. 



(12) Thankful. Col. 3:17; 1 
Thess. 5:18. 

(13) Indwelling of Holy Ghost. 
Rom. 8 : 9 ; 1 Jno. 4 : 13. 

(14) Increasing in faith. Luke 
17:5; Eph. 6:16. 

(15) Abstaining from appearance 
of evil. 2 Cor. 8 : 21 ; 1 Thess. 5 : 22. 

(16) Abounding in work of the 
Lord. 1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Cor. 8:7. 

(17) New Creatures. 2 Cor. 5 : 17; 
Gal. 6:15. 

(18) Near to God. Heb. 10:22; 
Jas. 4:8. 

— J. H. Edwards. 

Something Worth Having 

(1) Faith in God. Mark 11:22; 
Heb. 11:6; Rom. 10:17. 

(2) Redemption. Eph. 1:6, 7; 1 
Pet. 1:18-20; 1 Pet. 2:24. 

(3) Peace with God. Rom. 5:1. 
Contrast unsaved. Isa. 57 : 20, 21. 

(4) Boldness. Heb. 10:19. In 
and out. Jno. 10: 10. 

(5) An advocate. 1 Jno. 2:1, 2; 
Heb. 4:15, 16; 7:25. 

(6) The promises of God. 2 Pet. 
1:4; Luke 15:31; Phil. 4:19; 2 Cor. 
7:1. 

(7) The same kind of joy that 
Jesus had. Jno, 17:13; Jno. 15:9- 
11; Heb. 12:1, 2; Rom. 15:13; Neh. 
8:10. 

Oh! the joy of knowing that I am 
pleasing God. Jno. 8 : 29. 

When we please him he lets us 
know it. Heb. 11 : 4, 5. 

Forgiveness for the past, grace for 
the present, glory for the future. 
Surely this is worth having. 

— Robert L. Layfield. 

"The Child Samuer 
He was — 

I. A Progressive Child. 
"Samuel grew" — ''Grew on" — 

"Grew before the Lord." 1 Sam. 
2:21-26; 3:19. 

II. A Privileged Child. 

"The Lord was with him." 1 Sam. 
3:19. Comp. Matt. 28:20; Heb. 
13:5. 

III. A Powerful Child. 

"None of his words fell to the 
ground." 1 Sam. 3 : 19. 

IV. A Prosperous Child. 

"All Israel knew he was established 
to be a prophet." 1 Sam. 3 : 20. 
— James Sprunt. 

The Backslider 
Jeremiah 3 : 1-25. 



198 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



I. Cause of backsliding, vs. 1, 2. 
Spiritual adultery is the cause as- 
signed by God. Unfaithful to the 
vow of a separated life, you have 
played the harlot with another lover, 
and God is broken-hearted. 

II. Result of backsliding, v. 3. 
"Therefore" (mark you well the log- 
ical connection), "the showers have 
been Nvithholden." Spiritual drought, 
spiritual barrenness, spiritual fruit- 
lessness, are due to spiritual adul- 
tery. For the way to secure 
"showers of blessing," see 2 Chron. 
7:13, 14. 

III. God's disappointment in the 
backslider, v. 6. That question is 
the wail of a disappointed heart. 
Yet amid the deepest disappointment 
God has hope and says, "Turn thou 
unto me." v. 7. That hope becomes 
shattered in the word "but" of v. 7. 

IV. The backslider's influence, 
vs. 8-10. Backsliding Israel influenced 
Judah to treachery. Judah treated 
God falsely; it was Judas-like pre- 
tending to love, while deceit was in 
the mouth. God wants the whole 
heart or none. 

V. The backsliders call : ''Return !" 
V. 12. Three times in this chapter 
(vs. 1, 12, 22) the call goes forth. 
Note the patient pleading in "yet" 
in V. 1. This is the eloquence of 
love pleading for its own : the ten- 
derness of love wooing back the way- 
ward ; the perseverance of love wait- 
ing for the returning wanderer. 

VI. Conditions of the backslider's 
return, v. 13. The way to the 
Father's home is open on these con- 
ditions : (a) acknowledge thy trans- 
gression against the law and the love 
of God ; (b) acknowledge the evil 
influence of thy life upon others; 
(c) acknowledge thy disobedience to 
the voice of God ; then return, 

VII. Promises to the returning 
backslider, vs. 14-19. (a) The love 
of a husband, v. 14. (b) Bring 
him to Zion, the place of privilege 
and blessing, v. 14. (c) Give him 
true shepherds, that will feed him 
with knowledge and understanding. 
V. 15. (d) Lead him to genuine 
worship in which reality is greater 
than ritual, vs. 16, 17. (e) Unity 
of fellowship and service, v. 18. 
(f) Restored privileges of the 
Father's family, v. 29. 

VIII. Arraignment of the back- 
slider, vs. 20, 21. (a) Treacherous 
dealing v. 20. (b) Perversion of the 



way of God. v. 21 (c) Forgetting 
God. v. 21. Apply this three-fold 
arraignment to your life. 

IX. Hope of the backslider, v. 22. 
Interpret I "will heal your backslid- 
ings," by Hos. 13:4-7; (a) "I will 
heal their backsliding," v. 4; the 
wounds healed, (b) "I will love them 
freely," v. 4; like as a Father, (c) "I 
will be as the dew," v. 5 ; the parched 
soul refreshed, (d) "Blossom as the 
lily," V. 5 ; in beauteous profusion, 
(e) Grow as the cedars of Lebanon, 
V. 5; strength assured. (f) "His 
beauty shall be as the olive tree," v. 
6; the beauty of fruitfulness. (g) 
Fragrance of Lebanon, v. 6; the fra- 
grant life, (h) Prosperity abundant. 
V. 7. 

X. Confession of the backslider. 
V. 25. Let this confession often 
arise from those that are "prone to 
wander." — Rev. T. S. Henderson, D.D. 

The Loss or Salvation of the Soul 

"What shall it profit a man, if he 
shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul ?"— Mark 8 : 36, 27. 

These are questions of unspeakable 
importance. The Soul is something 
distinct from the body, and is capable 
of living separately from the body in 
another world. It is that which lives 
and thinks and moves within. If the 
Soul IS saved, all is saved; if the 
Soul is lost, all is lost. 

I. The soul is in danger of being 
lost for ever. 

II. The soul has been redeemed, 
and may be saved. 

III. The soul committed to Christ 
is safe. 

IV. The soul lost cannot be com- 
pensated by the whole world. 

The impenitent will be lost (Luke 
13:5) ; the unregenerate will be lost 
(John 3:3); and the neglected will 
be lost (Heb. 2:3). The redemption 
of the soul by the blood of Christ 
shows us God's great love for it, its 
great value, and the only thing that 
could redeem it. There is no meet- 
ing the soul's need apart from Christ. 
Nothing to cleanse it from sin, but 
his blood. Nothing to clothe it, but 
his righteousness. Nothing to satisfy 
its longing, but himself. — Rev. C. Ed- 
wards. 

The Supreme Question Supremely 
Answered 
"What must I do to be saved?" 
Acts. 16:30. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 199 



I. "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ; and thou shalt be saved." 
Acts. 16:31. 

"Lord, I believe; help thou mine 
unbeHef." Mark 9:24. 

IL "Let the wicked forsake his 
way and return unto the Lord, and 
he will have mercy upon him ; and 
to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." Isa. 55 : 7. 

"God be merciful to me a sinner." 
Luke 18:13. 

in. "The blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth us from all sin." 1 Jude 
1:7. 

"Wash me thoroughly from iniq- 
uity, and cleanse me from my sin." 
Ps. 51:2. 

IV. "Him that cometh to me, I 
will in no wise cast out." Jude 
6:Z7. 

"Show me Thy ways, O Lord, teach 
me Thy paths." Ps. 25 : 4. 

V. "Jesus is able to save them 
unto the uttermost, who come unto 
God by him." Heb. 7 : 2)S. 

"Lord, save me." Matt. 14:30. 

An Object Lesson in Grace 

John 9:25. 

This is one of the many object-les- 
sons of grace in the New Testament. 
Christ opens the eyes of the spiritu- 
ally blind that they may see his 
glory. 

I. The man's trouble. "Born 
blind," vs. 2. 

II. The man's trust. "He went 
his way." vs. 7. 

III. The man's trial. Persecution, 
vs. 13-34. 

IV. The man's testimony. Simple, 
Sound and Certain. 

V. The man's triumph. He saw 
Jesus, vs. 35-38. 

All are unfortunately born blind 
spiritually. Some are deluded and 
blind (2 Cor. 4:3, 4); some are 
willfully blind (John 9:41); and 
some go into eternity blind. 

Jesus saw this blind man, touched 
him by his power, spoke words of 
love and grace to him, and gave him 
his sight. This is what Jesus is doing 
still by his Spirit and Word. 

As soon as this poor man's eyes 
were opened he saw how the people 
hated Christ. 

His neighbors questioned him, 
Pharisees abused him, his parents 
feared and forsook him, rehgious peo- 
ple turned him out, but Jesus found 
him, and comforted him. 



This man gsve a clear and un- 
mistakable testimony to the power 
of Christ to heal and save. 

It was simple. "A man that is 
called Jesus," etc. It was sound. 
He told all he knew — a man, a 
Prophet. It was certain. "One thing 
I know," etc. It was settling. "Will 
ye also be his disciples?" He brought 
the truth home to their own hearts. 
Jesus found him, instructed him, and 
blessed him. — Rev. C. Edwards. 

The Call to Labor 

"Son, go work to-day in My vine- 
yard.'; Matt. 21 : 28. 

It is dignified and honorable to 
labor. An idle man is a stagnant pool 
on the world's highway. Every one 
is called upon to do something. 

I. God calls us to work for him. 
"Son, go work to-day in My vine- 
yard." We may take the Lord's 
vineyard to represent (1) our own 
nature. We are not our own. To 
succeed in cultivating our own na- 
ture is to lay the foundation of suc- 
cess in everything else; but to fail 
here is to fail everywhere. (2) We 
may include our own ' households. 

"Make good thy center first. 
Then strike thy circles round." 

No man was ever required by Jesus 
to neglect his home for any other 
work (3) The Lord's vineyard may 
next include his Church. "Look not 
every man on his own things only," 
etc. "Bear ye one another's burdens," 
etc. The best interests of the 
Church should be the constant care 
of every Christian. (4) But the 
Lord's vineyard includes the whole 
world. "Go ye into all the world, 
etc." 

II. The call comes from our 
Father. There is no relation which 
claims the same authority as a father. 
A man should^ always be a boy — an 
obedient boy — in the presence of his 
father. We are not slaves or serv- 
ants, but children. The divine Father 
has the first and highest claim. 

III. The call is urgent— "to-day." 
There is to be no delay. It may be 
our only day. We owe all days to 
our Father. It will never be so easy 
to obey as now. Procrastination is 
dangerous. "To-day" — ^the night is 
coming, when it will be too late. 

A New Testament Revival 
Acts 19:1-41; 20:1-2L 



200 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



The best hand-book on revivals is 
the Book of Acts. If you desire a 
revival in your church, a God-in- 
spired, God-continued, and God-ap- 
proved revival, you can have it by 
following out the program in Acts 19. 

I. Secure a company of believers, 
filled with the Holy Spirit, as a sav- 
ing remnant, vs. 1-7. Paul secured 
twelve laymen in Ephesus. God has 
always saved by a remnant. Isa. 1 : 9. 
God would have saved Sodom if there 
had been a faithful remnant. Gen. 
18 : 23-33. Pentecost was made pos- 
sible on the human side, by a faith- 
ful remnant of 120. Acts 1 : 13-15. 
Every revival has been inaugurated 
by the prayers and practice of a 
Spirit-filled remnant. 

II. Public services. (a) Where 
they were held. (1) In the syna- 
gogue. V. 8. The regularly stated 
place of worship was first used. 
Some things in the church are not 
to be commended, but Christ 
founded the church to accomplish 
his work. Revivals can be, and ought 
to be conducted by the church. (2) 
In the school of Tyrannus. v. 9. 
Daily meetings were held for two 
years in this public hall. Christ 
preached in the temple and out of 
it. If the people will not come to 
the church, we must take the church 
to them. The command of Christ is, 
"Go out and bring them in." Luke 
14 : 21. The problem is to get a hear- 
ing for Christ among the unsaved ; 
get a hearing, and you get a revival. 
Go where you can get a hearing! 
(b) The message in the meetings. 
It is one thing to get a hearing; 
the next problem is what to give 
the people when you secure a hear- 
ing. Notice what Paul's message 
was. (1) "The things concerning the 
Kingdom of God." v. 8. Not poli- 
tics, nor literature, nor science, but 
the Kingdom of God. (2) The 
word of the Lord Jesus, v. 10. 
Christ was the theme of his preach- 
ing everywhere. 1 Cor. 2:2. (3) 
Kept back nothing that was profita- 
ble. Acts. 20 : 20. Not pleasure, but 
profit, was his object. (4) "The 
whole counsel of God," Acts 20 : 27. 
Sin as well as salvation, the future 
as well as the present. 

III. The spirit of the messenger, 
(a) Tenderest compassion ; "with 
tears." Acts 20:31. Not with pro- 
fessional courtesy, but with personal 
love. (b) Persevering industry; 



"night and day." Acts 20:31. Not 
by spasm, but by patient, persistent 
labor. 

IV. Personal work. Acts 20:20, 
21. He went from house to house 
pleading with the people to accept 
Christ. Personal contact focuses the 
public message upon the individual 
life.^ Pray and labor for a revival 
of individual work for individuals 
in your church and community. 

V. Results. (a) All heard the 
word. V. 10. (b) Some were hard- 
ened and disobedient, v. 9. (c) Many 
repented, believed, and confessed 
Christ, vs. 18-20. (d) "No small 
stir," "holy confusion." vs. 23, 29. 
(e)_ Some were mad. v. 28. (f) 
Epistle to the Ephesians. Lord, mul- 
tiply such revivals ! — Rev. T. S. 
Henderson, D.D. 

The Steps to Life 

May I give you the steps to eternal 
life? 

I. First. Repent. Repentance is 
turning from sin. 

II. Second. Believe. Say, "Here 
and now. Lord Jesus, I acknowledge 
Thee as my Saviour. 

III. Third. Confess. Say before 
you leave this building this morning, 
"Jesus Christ is my Saviour; from 
to-day on all men shall know it." 

IV. Fourth. Obey. 

And, if every man in this building 
will take these steps now, and mean 
them, the burden of sin will be rolled 
away. God help you to do it. — 
Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

New Birth 

It brings new things. 

(1) A new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17. 

(2) A new Hfe. 1 John 5:12. 

(3) A new peace. Rom. 5:1. 

(4) A new love. 1 John 3 : 14. 

(5) A new evidence (witness). 
1 John 5 : 10. 

(6) A new outlook. Rom. 8:1. 
— Rev. Levi Johnson. 

"Seek and Ye Shall Find" 

Matt. I-.I. 

In those assuring words we have — 

I. A personal precept. "Seek." 
Obedience. 

II. A personal persuasion. "And 
you." Response. 

III. A personal promise. ''Shall." 
Assurance. 

IV. A personal portion. "Find." 
Blessing. 

— Rev. Charles Edwards. 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 201 



Happy Deliverance 

Ps. 40: 2, 3. 

I. Sorrow. "In the horrible pit." 
Helplessness. 

II. Salvation. *'He brought me 
up." Hope. 

III. Safety. "Set my feet upon a 
rock." Holiness. 

IV. Songs. "Put a new song into 
my mouth." Happiness. 

V. Service. "Many shall see it and 
fear." Helping others. 

— Rev. C. Edwards. 

Precious Blood of Jesus 

(1) The ground of our acceptance, 
Colossians 1:20; Romans 5:9; 1 
John 3:10. 

(2) The channel of forgiveness, 
Ephesians 1:7; 4:32; Colossians 
2:13. 

(3) The means of cleansing, 1 
John 1:7; Hebrews 9:13, 14; Reve- 
lation 7 : 14. 

(4) The separating power, 1 Peter 
1:17, 19; Hebrews 13:12, 13. 

(5) The secret of overcoming, Rev- 
elation 12:11; 2 Corinthians 4:10; 
Galatians 6 : 14. 

(6) The pledge of blessing, Luke 
22 : 20 ; Hebrews 9:15; Romans 8 : 32. 

(7) Apprehension needful to spir- 
itual life, John 6 : 53, 55. 

Now, Now, Now 

2 Cor. 6:2 

The Lord puts his special notice 
word in this verse. Behold, to show 
us the importance of the message. 

The greatest word in the Bible is 
God ; the sweetest, Love ; the tender- 
est. Come ; the longest, Eternity ; and 
the shortest, Now. Yet what mo- 
mentous issues depend upon the 
proper use of the present moment! 
Now or Never! 

(1) Now is God's Time— for 
Mercy. Luke 14 : 17. 

(2) Now is a Good Time — for Sal- 
vation. 2 Kings 7 : 9. 

(3) Now is the Right Time— for 
Watchfulness. Rom. 13:11. 

(4) Now is the Best Time— for 
Acceptance. 2 Cor. 6 : 2. 

(5) Now is the Only Time — for 
Blessing. Luke 19:42. 

An Inspired Manual of Christian 
Work 

Luke 10 is an inspired manual of 
Christian work. 

I. The work to be done ; "sent be- 
fore his face." v. 1. Every worker 



is a pathfinder for Jesus. We can 
at least be a voice in the world's 
wilderness, announcing the coming of 
the King. John 1:23. 

II. The plenteous salvation, v. 
2. Men are waiting for the glad 
tidings; the call is for laborers. If 
you cannot go into the whitened 
fields, you can pray, and such prayer 
will help to get reapers. 

III. The field of work; amxong 
"wolves." V. 3. Dangers will beset, 
difficulties arise, disappointments fall, 
but Christ takes care of the work- 
ers. The more difficult the field, the 
greater the triumph for Christ. 

IV. The spirit of the worker, vs. 
4-7. (a) Self-denial; "no purse, no 
wallet, no shoes." v. 4. (b) No 
trifling; "salute no man by the way." 
V. 4. (c) Courtesy; "Peace be unto 
this house." v. 5. (d) Grateful ap- 
preciation ; "Eat and drink such things 
as they give." v. 7. 

V. The message of the worker: v. 
9. "The kingdom of God is come 
nigh unto you." That message was 
a call to let God rule in the hearts 
of the people. That kingdom was 
to be sought first. Matt. 6 : 33. 

^ VI. The worker superior to condi- 
tions, vs. 10-16. You go on your mis- 
sion in Christ's stead ; you cannot be 
a servant^ of conditions. You are 
not ^ working for results, but for 
Christ. 

VII. The worker's joy. vs. 17-20. 
Lives transformed, v. 17. But 
deeper joy than can come from any- 
thing we do for others, is the joy 
that comes from the knowledge of 
what Christ has done for us. 4 : 20. 

VIII. The worker's experience, vs. 
21-22. (a) Loving loyalty and entire 
submission to the Father's will. v. 
21. Leave the results of the work 
in the Father's hands, (b) Complete 
confidence in the Father's love. "All 
things have been delivered unto me 
of my Father." v. 22. (c) Intimate 
fellowship with the Father. The 
knowledge that springs out of a con- 
fiding intimacy, v. 22. (d) Indepen- 
dent of the world but dependent on 
God. V. 22. Father knows ; that is 
enough. 

IX. The worker's opportunity, vs. 
23-37. (a) As he journeyed, v. 33. 
Christ did so much for others "as 
he passed by." John 9:1. (b) He 
came where the needy man was. 
V. 33. (c) He saw and had compas- 
sion, (d) Came to him. v. 34; 



202 



THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



love acting. (e) Bound up his 
wounds. V. 34; love serving, (f) 
Poured in oil and wine. v. 34; love 
soothing, (g) Set him on his beast. 
V. 34; love lifting, (h) Brought him 
to an inn. v. 34; love helping, (i) 
Took care of him. v. 34; love in 
personal ministry. (j) Committed 
him to another with the command 
''take care of him," v. 35; love pro- 
viding. 

X. Work and wait. vs. 38-41. 
Both are needful for the symmetri- 
cal Christian life. Martha worked 
so much that she had no time to 
wait. vs. 40, 41.— Rev. T. S. Hender- 
son, D.D. 

Service 

I. The Need. — As great to-day as 
when Christ spake these words. Luke 
10:2. 

II. The command. — His will and 
wish that we should go and our priv- 
ilege and honor to go. Matt. 10 : 16. 

III. Our reply should be. — More 
people are saying, "I cannot" than 
"Here, Lx)rd, send me." Isaiah 6 : 8. 

IV. Our preparation.— Many do 
not and cannot go because they are 
unwilling to be purged of the things 
of dishonor. 2 Tim. 2:20, 21. 

V. The results here. We shall 
come rejoicing, bringing our sheaves 
with us. Psa. 126 : 5, 6. 

VI. The results thereafter. We 
shall hear the Master say, "Well, 
done, thou good and faithful serv- 
ants." Matt. 25 : 23. — Rev. Charles 
CuLLEN Smith. 

Faith 
Gen. 22:1-14. 

I. Faith tested, v. 1, 2cf. Heb. 
11:17. 

(1) Was necessary. (1) A mark 
of sonship. Cf . Heb. 12 : 7. (2) To 
refine the true in man. (3) To prove 
loyalty equal to the heathen (child 
worship.) 

(2) The test. (1) Surrender of 
only beloved son. (2) Sacrifice. Cf. 
Jno. 3 : 16, Our sacrifice to be. 
Rom. 12:1, Our sacrifice to be 
profitable. Heb. 12:11. 

II. Faith triumphs, vs. 3-10. 

(1) Prompt to obey. v. 3, cf. Psa. 
119:6-60; Gal. 1:15, 16. 

(2) Complete confidence, v. 7, 8, 
cf. Heb. 11:19. 

III. Faith rewarded, v. 11, 14. 
(1) By divine intervention, vs, 11, 

12. Cf. 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Pet. 2:9. 



(2) By divine approval, v. 12. 

(3) By special divine manifesta- 
tion. V. 14-18. 

Note — God spared Isaac, but not 
his own Son. — W. F. Carey. 

An Ideal Soul Winner 

Acts 8:1-40. 

Soul winning as an art is taught 
by the example of Philip, an ideal 
soul winner. Philip's spiritual life is 
described by the word "full." 

I. Full of goodness. Acts 6:3. 
He was of good report in the com- 
munity. People had confidence not 
only in his business abihty, but in 
his consistent character. He was 
right with God, and therefore he had 
power with men. Crippled work is 
due to crippled character. 

II. Full of the Holy Spirit. Acts 
6 : 3. The work of the Holy Spirit 
is described in John 14:8-11. When 
we are filled with the Spirit, our lives 
will become channels of such three- 
fold conviction of sinful men. The 
Holy Spirit develops the Christ 
within us; creating within us the 
Christ hopes, the Christ purposes, 
the Christ passions. 

III. Full of wisdom. Acts 6:3. 
A soul winner must be wise. ProVc 
9 : 30. A wise man will be a soul 
winner, for it pays the largest inter- 
est on the time and talent invested. 
Dan, 12 : 3. Perhaps in no form of 
Christian work is greater wisdom, 
sanctified sense, and heavenly tact 
needed, than in soul winning. 

IV. Full of obedient faith, vs. 
26, 27. It required large faith and 
instant obedience to leave a great re- 
vival in Samaria (vs. 5-8), and go 
to a lonely desert, v. 26. But "he 
arose and went." v. 27. That is 
faith magnificent! The soul winner 
must not argue or excuse, hesitate 
or refuse; he must obey. The Spirit 
that commanded Philip to go unto 
that desert was preparing the heart 
of a man (vs. 27, 28) to receive 
Philip's message. 

V. Full of prayer, v. 26. He was 
a man of prayer, with his heart open 
to God, or he never would have heard 
God's voice commanding him to go 
into the desert. Prayer not only 
talks with God ; it listens to hear 
God's voice, and then obeys. Prayer 
prevails for the salvation of others. 
James v. 16-20. 

VI. Full of the Scriptures, vs. 30- 
35. Philip knew the Scriptures well 



TWO HUNDRED OUTLINES AND SKETCHES 203 



enough to lead that eunuch to Christ, 
by interpreting to him the 53rd chap- 
ter of Isaiah. Ignorance of tiie 
Scriptures is criminal when all that 
is required is work. 2 Tim. 2 : 15. 
You must know how to handle the 
sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), 
or it is powerless. 

VII. Full of zeal. v. 30. He ran, 
and eagerly engaged the eunuch in» 
conversation. Better have zeaKwith- 
out knowledge than knowledge with- 
out zeal. Best of all, have both. Djo 
not let a man go to hell because you 
have not been introduced to him. 

VIII. Full of Christ? v. 35. "He 
preached unto him Jesus." Jesus is 
the need of every sinner ; Jesus 
should be the theme, the aim, the 
impulse, the inspiration of our lives 
for soul winning. Some one is wait- 
ing for you to preach unto him Jesus ! 
—Rev. T. S. Henderson, D.D. 

Salute No Man by the Way 

Luke 10:4. 

(1) Be absorbingly in earnest. 
^ (2) Beware of social conventionali- 
ties. "Be ye separate." 

(3) Have but one purpose, to win 
men to Christ. "This one thing I 
do."— Rev. John Balcom Shaw, D.D. 

Voices of Jesus 

(1) Shepherd's voice — Follow me. 

(2) Master's voice — Occupy. 

(3) Saviour's voice — Come unto me. 



(4) Teacher's voice — ^Learn of me. 

(5) Bridegroom's voice — Open to 
me. 

(6) Friend's voice — Counsel thee. 

(7) Physician's voice — Wilt thou 
be made whole? 

Acquaintance With God 

"Acquaint now thyself with him, 
and be at peace." Job. 22 : 21. 

I. The duty of acquainting our- 
selves with God. 

(1) It implies an habitual practical 
knowledge. 

(2) The relation he bears to us. 

(3) The respect we owe to him. 

(4) In his perfections. Not a per- 
fect knowledge — that is impossible— 
for a creature can never know the 
Creator. 

We should know him as the crea- 
tor and governor and preserver of 
the universe. As our Redeemer — 
this will fill us with confidence, and 
"peace and joy in believing." As 
our Sanctifier. As our Father. 

II. The season. "Now." 

(1) The present moment. 

(2) The day of trouble and afflic- 
tion. 

III. The result. "Peace." 

(1) God is the God of Peace. 

(2) Christ, as the Prince of Peace, 
left peace as a bequest to his dis- 
ciples. 

(3) This peace will influence us 
under all circumstances. — P. 



IV 

THE NEED OF EVANGELISM 

Urgent Need of a Revival 

The Christian church had its origin in a great revival of religion. 
This revival continued under the preaching of the apostles and 
their successors, until, in the face of great opposition and persecution, 
Christianity became, at the beginning of the fourth century under 
Constantine the Great, the established religion of the Roman Em- 
pire. Paul could say, in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, that "the gospel is come unto you, even as it is in all the 
world bearing fruit and increasing." 

The history of the church shows that God's method of preserving, 
purifying and enlarging his church has been by epochs of spiritual 
revival. These revivals were needed in the past, and a great, even 
v/orld-wide revival is needed at the present time. 

Personal religion is at a low ebb. In too large a proportion of 
church members it is not conspicuous, pronounced, nor aggressivef. 
And family religion, family worship, family instruction in Bible 
truths are on the part of many wholly neglected. The prayer meet- 
ing is poorly attended and the house of God is not crowded as it 
should be by devout worshippers. A great part of the masses has 
repudiated the church, and even many intelligent and moral people 
neglect to worship by observing his ordinances, and spend their Sab- 
baths in visiting and recreation. 

In a word, a revival of religion is needed all over our land. 

If such a revival should come, it must be brought about by the 
free almighty Spirit of God. Human agencies, however, must be 
employed ; and what are these ? They are preaching, prayer, praise, 
purity of moral conduct, and promotion by liberal giving to all the 
enterprises of the church. 

Able, earnest and faithful preaching of the word has always pre- 
ceded and accompanied every revival of religion from the day of 
Pentecost till the present time. A true revival will also be sustained 
by a higher and wider morality and by generous giving to the cause 
of God.— Rev. J. P. Robb, D.D. 

The Revival We Need 

We want a revival that will save the youth "while the evil days 
will come not." The age calls for revivals of Bible study, not 

204 



THE NEED OF EVANGELISM 205 

exegetical, not critical, but devotional and practical. "Ye err," said 
Christ to the Pharisees, "not knowing the Scriptures nor the power 
of God." How much error and evil are the results of ignorance of 
God's words and will! The Bible is the "only infallible rule of 
faith and practice." Here we find divine authority for doctrine and 
duty. In God's Word is the fountain of truth and righteousness. 
To that source must our age return to cleanse the stream of thought 
and life from the corrupting forces of to-day. The revival we 
need is such as will sink into the heart and mind of our times the 
great fundamental, indisputable, eternal doctrines concerning sin 
and salvation, man and God, the life that now is and the life that 
is to come. 

First and last the revival of to-day must be a revival. It must 
reach the individual, domestic, social, commercial, political life. It 
must make men honest with their fellow-men and God. It must 
make men keep their word and pay their debts, and love their 
families, and perform their duties, sincerely, conscientiously, faith- 
fully. It must bring out the best there is in manhood, womanhood, 
childhood. It must hold before all high ideals, and spur them on 
to their realization. It must inspire all with strong convictions and 
the courage of them. Its purifying power must be felt in parlor 
and kitchen, office and factory, store and shop, school and exchange 
— everywhere. Young and old, rich and poor, high and low, must 
yield to the authority of the golden rule of Christian conduct, whose 
universal sway shall usher in the golden rule of Christly character. 

Obstacles to Revivals 

There is always something in the way of a revival. The world, 
the flesh and the Devil are always busy. The obstacles are different 
in different parishes. Sometimes they are exceedingly small. A 
very simple but common example may amuse or interest young 
pastors. Many years ago I was pastor of a church where there 
was a large, efficient choir. But they were sadly frivolous. There 
were frequent whispers, merriment, and note-writing. This gave 
me much thought and anxiety. I was sometimes tempted to re- 
prove them openly. They deserved it. But I said : "This will repel 
them. My desire is to win them — to win them first to myself, and 
then to Christ;" and so I studied the case and looked to God for 
wisdom. And here came in my rule to treat with special attention 
those persons by whom I was annoyed. I called upon each one of 
them. Without allusion to their trifling I spoke to them of my love 
of music, and of my connection with an academic and collegiate 
choir. I spoke to them of my high appreciation of their singing, 
and of our obligation to them on this account. I soon after ar- 
ranged a series of evening prayer-meetings in the chapel. I then 



2o6 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

called upon the choir again, invited them to our meetings, and re- 
quested them to sit together in a forward seat and to conduct the 
singing. A large number of persons soon after united with our 
church. Among them was every member of that troublesome choir. 
And without ever suspecting my annoyance, they were for many, 
many years my help and my joy. — Pastor's Testimony. 

Do I Want a Revival? 

When special evangelistic meetings were being planned and 
prayed for in the Moody Church of Chicago, the members were fur- 
nished with a leaflet that squarely challenged them with the follow- 
ing five questions : 

1. Do I desire a revival enough to pray earnestly and constantly 
for it? 

2. Do I desire a revival enough to search my heart and ask God 
to cast out from it all displeasing to him? 

3. Do I desire a revival enough to attend meetings for prayer and 
take my part in them even at a sacrifice of pride, comfort and con- 
venience ? 

4. Do I desire a revival enough to seek opportunities to converse 
and pray with the unconverted? 

5. Do I desire a revival so earnestly as to continue laboring and 
praying for it, even if the answer be not given at once ? 

Planning for a Revival 

Some good people consider it almost sacrilegious to use any such 
expression as the above, "Plan for a revival !" They say, "plan for 
a revival as though it was a matter of man's wisdom and man's 
choice when we know that Paul may plant and Apollos water but 
that God must give the increase." But the Bible nowhere says that 
if neither Paul plants nor Apollos waters God will give the increase. 
It takes it for granted that Paul will plant and Apollos water, that 
human agencies will be used, that human brains and hearts will be 
enlisted, that human plans will be laid, and that God will use them 
for his glory. God gives the harvest, but the farmer ploughs and 
harrows and sows and cultivates, and carries out numberless plans 
to insure and increase his crop. God gives intellectual strength and 
vigor, but the student must plan for ten years of study before he 
is ready for his profession. When will Christians learn that God 
works through them, and uses their plans to accomplish his highest 
plans, and instead of dishonoring him by organizing and planning 
and using their very best efiforts they are really giving him the 
highest honor of implicit obedience? Plan for a revival. By all 
means. Plan wisely, persistently, in a docile and teachable spirit. 



THE NEED OF EVANGELISM - 207 

remembering at the same time to pray as though it all depended on 
God. It is a solemn thought for every Christian to face, that there 
is no church of Christ in this broad land which may not if it 
chooses have this coming season a revival of religion, pure and un- 
defiled. 

Tact in a Revival 

Rev. Dr. Jacob Little, of Granville, Ohio, at one time found his 
church in a low, discouraged condition and his people given up to 
worldliness. In describing the thing he says: "The young people 
of Granville were all getting crazy with ball-going. They would 
not go to church. What now can be done? I finally laid this 
plan. First of all I found the most influential young man among 
the ball-goers. I asked him who was the most interesting young 
lady. I saw the two together. This pleased them. I then broached 
my plan for a Bible class, with them for managers. The thing took. 
We met at the house of the young man's father. I kept clear of 
the church and the minister's house. When I faced that company 
I was put to my wits. What could I say from the Bible to interest 
them? The Judge slammed his door between us and his office. I 
finally gave them a little history, a little geography, some literature, 
a good deal of fun, and at the end a very little religion that should 
pinch the conscience. The next time more came and the Judge left 
the door open a crack. The next time he threw the door wide open 
and turned toward us. Before spring the Judge and all his family 
were converted and my Bible class was the most popular thing in 
Granville." That Bible class continued while the Doctor remained 
in town and was often attended by two hundred and fifty persons. 

Prayer for Revival 

Pray for a revival, local, national and world-wide. 

Just prior to the Founder's Week Conference in the Moody Bible 
Institute, a considerable number of able evangelical leaders through- 
out the country were asked to indicate briefly why God's people 
should pray for revival in the body of Christ. Their replies were 
read at the Conference, and some were published afterwards. The 
following unpublished reply was one of the strongest received (writ- 
ten by T. C. Horton) : "The condition among young people in the 
church — of which I have made a careful study for years — is appal- 
ling. There is a form of godliness, but a recklessness concerning 
spiritual life. The inroads of the moving picture ; the superficiality 
of many of the preachers and leaders in church life, and the vio- 
lation of their church vows ; the appalHng conditions existing among 
young people in our public schools and colleges, — is enough to break 
one's heart." 



2o8 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

The foregoing description — how strangely similar to the descrip- 
tion of the period that immediately preceded the great revival of 
1800 (as told by C. L. Thompson in "Times of Refreshing") : 
"Death in the churches, rottenness in public morals, infidelity coming 
in like a flood upon the schools and the thinkers of the young re- 
public." And also of the period immediately preceding the sweep- 
ing revival of 1857 and '58 : "It was a time of reckless expenditures, 
of unparalleled fever for riches without consideration of how they 
were obtained, of apathetic conscience and wakeful selfishness, of 
coldness and deadness in the Church and alarming godlessness outside 
of it. The nation seemed drifting in the same direction in which it 
had gone before the great revival of 1800. Skepticism, both specula- 
tive and practical, pervaded all ranks of society. We were becoming 
a people without God in the world." 

And then, in both cases, not through evangelistic appeal but 
through prayer, came the same kind of mighty awakenings that ere 
long, if it so pleases God, we are once more to see throughout the 
length and breadth of America, and this time of the world. And 
again it will be as it was then: "Everywhere men began to pray. 
They had no words for each other. They had reached the ultimate 
of human resources. Almost unconsciously they began to cry unto 
God, unknown to each other, without concert of effort or thought. 
East and West, North and South, the people thronged the churches 
and halls, not for preaching, but 'for Prayer'; and tens of thousands 
were swept as it were by the breath of God into the kingdom." 

Are you longing for revival ? Are you praying for it ? Are you 
believing God for it? Are you asking others to join you? Keep 
praying for revival ; God will answer. According to the Church's 
faith, so shall it be. — Svmday School Times, 

Evangelism and the Bible 

The term evangel, which is taken from the Greek, signified good 
news or good message. The Anglo-Saxon was godspel, meaning 
goodspel, and in Middle English it became gospel. So that the 
Greek word evangel and the English word gospel mean the same. 
The gospel was first proclaimed on the day when man sinned and 
fell. When they were drinking of their bitter cup ; when hope was 
darkened and faith was awakened; when pain was first known, 
sorrow first felt, the promise that the seed of the woman should 
bruise the head of the serpent was the best news, the most precious 
message, the real gospel of that hour. Without this, all would have 
been gloom and despair. This same gospel or evangel was preached 
to Abraham when it was promised that in him and his seed should 
all nations of the earth be blessed. This same gospel runs through 
the whole Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, to the very last 



THE NEED OF EVANGELISM 209 

passage, where it is said, "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. 
And let him that heareth say Come. And let him that is athirst, 
come. And whosoever will let him come and drink of the water of 
life freely.'' The gospel is therefore the message of God's saving 
love. It is news to those who have never heard it. It is a precious 
message to all who hear and believe it. It is foolishness to the un- 
believer, and it is the power of God unto salvation to those who 
believe. The purpose of the gospel is therefore two-fold: to save 
the lost and persuade them to embrace the salvation provided by 
God in Christ. It is also to comfort and build up and make strong 
in faith those who have already believed. The same message which 
increases the love and faith of those who already believe is very 
likely to reach those who have not yet believed. We are of the 
opinion that the modern tendency to think and act and preach as 
though a different message was necessary to reach the unbeliever, 
from that which reaches and feeds and builds up the believer, is a 
mistake. The same message of God may at the same time reach the 
converted and the unconverted. The same message which at the 
communion table has filled the soul of the saint to overflowing has 
often melted the soul of the sinner to repentance. We do not say 
that there are no individual cases which require personal treatment, 
but it will be the same gospel, though differently applied. 

The evangel can be found nowhere else than in the Bible. Sci- 
ence does not know it. Philosophy never found it. The Bible, the 
Revelation of God, alone contains it. It is given in the Bible in its 
best and most effective setting. The literary preacher, therefore, 
may not be the most evangelistic preacher. He may entertain and 
even edify, but he rarely convinces, or stirs those deep convictions 
of the soul which lead to repentance and salvation. He is the 
strongest evangel who uses the gospel in its divine setting. This 
may mean the setting of condemnation, or warning of the wrath of 
God, or tender invitation, or encouragement, instruction, or any other 
setting in the Bible, and this Biblical setting is always the best. The 
common illustration is a means of bringing the gospel and its setting 
down to the mind of the hearer, whether believer or unbeliever; 
but an illustration without a gospel message is a hindrance. The 
Bible, then, is the great means of evangelism, both for the culture 
of the saints and the rescue of the sinner. 

The power of evangelism is the Holy Spirit. While the Bible is 
the essential means of evangelism, yet the Bible is not the power; 
that resides in the vital act of the Holy Spirit. Chosen men may 
render great service, but only the Holy Spirit can save a soul. He 
alone gives the new birth. He alone sanctifies through faith and 
cooperation those who have been born again. There can be neither 
conversion nor revival without the direct sovereign presence and 
power of the Holy Spirit, who is a person, reasonable, and full of 



210 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

love. The Holy Spirit is very sensitive and is offended at rtHsrep- 
resentation of God's Word. He has given no promises to work 
with anything but the Word, but this he has promised to bless. A 
quickening of believers usually precedes the outpouring of God's 
Spirit upon the unconverted. Revival and the new birth, regener- 
ation and sanctification usually go together. 

There is no fixed method. It may be congregational or it may be 
personal. God has used both agencies. Peter accomplished great 
results with one sermon, which was Biblical and loyal to Christ's 
death and resurrection. Our Lord did very much of his work be- 
tween four eyes, while he also addressed the multitude. Some 
people can do most effective personal work who would have difficulty 
with public speaking, and vice versa. Some have both gifts. Let 
every one use the gift which God has given him. The accompani- 
ments of the public and individual utterances should be devout 
honoring of God's Word, God's name, God's house, and God's prom- 
ise. There is no place for sarcasm in exposing evil and vehemence 
in denouncing sin. But, in general, reverence and honor of God's 
Word and Spirit is of the utmost importance. The use of sensa- 
tionalism in the coarser sense may win the person to the evangelist, 
but not to Christ. It may gain accessions to the church, but will 
not win souls to eternal life. Prayer and the spirit of prayer is one 
of the most important elements in the evangelism. When the people 
pray, there is great hope ; but a dearth of prayer means death among 
souls. The agencies of evangelism in the order of importance are 
the work in the family, the preaching of the pulpit, the labor of the 
teacher, and the special meetings. The consecrated father and 
mother come first. On an equal with them is the faithful preacher. 
A strong second is the earnest teacher ; and at special times and sea- 
sons, the protracted meetings. — D. S. K. 

Is the Fire Going Out? 

Paul was interested in Timothy and gave him good advice. On 
one occasion he wrote, saying: "Stir up the gift of God which is 
in thee." The original exhortation has reference to the kindling of 
a fire, or starting it to new life as by a bellows. See that you kindle 
up into a blaze the spiritual gifts which you have. It is not un- 
common to compare piety to a flame or fire. The figure of speech 
here used means to cause to burn more brightly. In other words, 
Paul wanted Timothy to use all proper means to keep the flame of 
pure religion burning in his soul, and thus increase his zeal in the 
cause of Christ. 

God's gifts in us need to be cultivated by personal care. The 
tendency of the flame of spiritual life untended is always to go out.^ 



THE NEED OF EVANGELISM 211 

We have constant need for watchfulness, lest we grow cold. A 
garden uncultivated runs to weeds. A body unfed tends toward 
death. A vessel not propelled is sure to drift. A fire not increasing is 
going out. There are so many currents to carry the Christian back 
that only constant effort can keep him advancing. The captain of 
a sailing vessel coming from Cuba thought that he had gained sixty 
miles one stormy day, but when the clouds cleared away and he got 
his reckoning he found that, instead, he had lost thirty. It was due 
to an undercurrent that had carried him back. So in the Christian 
life we are liable to drift by undercurrents. We must frequently 
take our bearings. We must stir up the energy that is in us. 

With the spiritual fire burning low we are in a most unhappy and 
useless condition. The backslidden Christian finds life full of dis- 
tressing conditions. This is what Solomon meant when he said: 
"The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." He 
will be filled with ways of doubt. Backsliding is how doubt begins. 
He will be filled with ways of fault-finding. Everything looks 
wrong when the heart is wrong. He will be filled with ways of 
alienation. He is almost sure to drift away from the Church and 
Christian associations. Then he will blame them, rather than him- 
self. He will be filled with ways of despair. Being filled with his 
"own ways," and not God's ways, fills him with despair; and this 
brings spiritual paralysis. 

But whether backsliders or not, our duty is to "stir up the gift of 
God which is in us." Kindle up the fire! Fan the flame! This 
we must do if religion is not to be a dead or stationary thing, but 
active, burning, increasing. We must continually stir up the gifts 
God has already given. Remember, this may be done indirectly. 
You may warm yourself by warming others. You may save your- 
self by saving others, as did the Alpine traveler when he carried 
his freezing companion. "He that winneth souls is wise." — H. 

The Cross in Modern Life 

One of the recognized defects of a certain type of evangelism is 
its manifest superficiality. The terms in which we often hear the 
call to the religious life expressed to-day bear a marked contrast to 
the conditions laid down by the Master for those who sought an 
entrance to his Kingdom. In one of his recent addresses before a 
great audience in Pittsburgh, Gipsy Smith said that some preachers 
have come to the place where they hold religion so cheap that it is 
a matter simply of holding up one's hand in a religious meeting to 
be counted. In his appeal at the close of this sermon he said : "The 
majority of people want to dodge cross-bearing. They don't want 
privations, suffering ; danger. They don't want anything that would 



212 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

keep them awake at night. How many of you are willing to go out 
and help a fallen woman? You are ashamed to do that, but you 
know what Jesus said." 

Jesus did not try to make the way easy in order to attract the 
crowds to his standard. His appeal was rather to the heroic. He 
spoke of a cross, of self-denial, of hardness. The soft and ease- 
loving multitudes walked in the broad slopes that lead downward; 
only the few chose the difficult path to higher and fuller life. 

And Jesus' way has proved the true way to win the world. The 
noblest souls respond most readily to a high appeal. Men of the 
finest mettle welcome the challenge to a worthy task, no matter how 
difficult or perilous. We have an instinctive feeling that that which 
costs us little is not worth much. It is the men who have spurned 
a life of ease, who have been willing to endure hardship, to pass 
through the fires and face the lions, and lay down their lives for 
the truth, that have captured the imagination and won the sympathy 
and loyalty of thousands in every great forward movement of the 
Church. 

Recent events have shown that the cross has still its ancient ap- 
peal if it is given the right of way. Men still respond to the heroic 
in a worthy cause. The response to the call for recruits to defend 
the priceless heritage of our liberties in the great war has taught 
the Church a never-to-be-forgotten lesson in its approach to men. 
If the terms of membership in the Church were based more closely 
on the primary appeal of the Master, the Church, even if numerically 
smaller, would be a greater force in the world. 'To do its work 
in the world the Church need not always be numerically large, but 
it must always have moral quality. In its heart must bum the fire 
of spiritual devotion. Until Christians are ready to make of their 
bodies living sacrifices, the Church will make no appeal to strong 
men and women of the world." — Presbytericm Witness. 

Revival Under Nehemiah 

During the dispersion of the Jews one lone man undertook a 
stupendous and seemingly hopeless project. He was cup-bearer to 
the great king Artaxerxes. In the face of the fiercest opposition 
he would go up and rebuild the walls of his beloved Jerusalem and 
revive the true worship of God. But the king would naturally op- 
pose this step. First then he weeps and mourns and fasts and prays 
and confesses his sins and pleads God's promises. The great wis- 
dom of this step will appear. He did not seek the help of the king, 
but he entered his presence with a sad countenance. Then said 
the king: "Why is thy countenance sad? This is nothing else but 
sorrow of heart." Then was he sore afraid, but he prayed to God 
and told the king all his desire, and asked for protectors and letters. 



THE NEED OF EVANGELISM 213 

and all needed means of rebuilding the city. Three days after his 
arrival at Jerusalem he went out secretly by night to survey the 
broken walls and the burned gates. He then opened the matter to 
the remnant of the Jews that were there "in great affliction and 
reproach." Then, armed with sword, javeHn, and trumpet, they 
went to the work amid the taunts and threats of outside enemies. 
In fifty-two days the walls were finished. Then came the most 
difficult task of all — a revival of pure religion. For eight days all 
the people were gathered in the street. And they made themselves 
booths. They were instructed and counselled. "And all the people 
wept when they heard the words of the Law" (Neh. 8:9). They 
kept a solemn fast, and they confessed their sins. "And when Ezra 
blessed the Lord, the Great God, all the people answered Amen, 
Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and 
worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground." And so the 
people are consecrated to God and his worship is restored. In this 
sublime history there is not one ostensible miracle. It is God hear- 
ing prayer. It is God giving to Nehemiah not mere business ability, 
but the most consummate tact and the most exhaustless energy in 
worldly and spiritual projects. So will God give wisdom to us. 



V 

SOME) METHODS IN EVANGELISM 
A New Every Member Canvass 

A large proportion of all the churches in this country make a 
regular Every Member Canvass for subscriptions to church support 
and to missions and benevolences. But why should not this method 
for securing money suggest a somewhat similar method for securing 
new members? We suggest an Every Member Evangelistic Cam- 
paign. A letter from a pastor, teUing of plans for special services 
and asking help in prayer, had in it this sentence : "We have every 
man, woman and child in C card-indexed, with information con- 
cerning them. Personal workers are already at work." 

An American school which had spent considerable money in ad- 
vertising, undertook to find out from its students how many of them 
had come to it through its advertisements. To the great surprise 
of the management, only three or four students were found who 
had so much as seen them. They had come to the school because 
their friends told them about it. A one-win-one campaign is what 
we are suggesting. 

The heart must be prepared for personal work by prayer. Prayer 
will put the heart in proper condition for personal work, and it will 
often prepare the heart of a person whom we seek to help for the 
personal work or effort. If we go to personal work after earnest, 
definite prayer, God will often open up an unexpected way for us, 
and we will often find the person much more ready to receive us 
kindly and to talk of the soul's salvation than we anticipated. 

Personal conversation is the most effective method of personal 
work. "Let him that heareth say. Come." "As ye go, preach.'* 
Some souls are brought to Christ seemingly only when approached 
by individuals. 

One of the most prominent pastors in this country recently said : 
"I laid my hand upon the shoulder of a noble specimen of young 
manhood and asked him if he was a Christian. I had not seen him 
to know him or to separate him from the crowd before that moment. 
He replied, with an evident desire to detain me, 'No, sir; I have 
heard you preach every Sunday for seven years without one excep- 
tion, but I am not a Christian yet.' He is now one of the most 
faithful members of the church. What seven years of preaching 
had failed to do, five minutes of heart-contact and personal relation 
accomplished." 

The right way to win souls is to go after them. 

214 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 215 

"Mr. Moody, what is the way to reach the masses with the 
Gospel?" "Go for them!" was the quaint and characteristic answer; 
and it expresses the Hfe principle of Dwight L. Moody. 

A missionary was summoned before a magistrate. The following 
dialogue developed : Official — "We hear that you have been inviting 
Moslems to become Christians." Missionary — "It is true." Offi- 
cial — "Whom do you invite?" Missionary — "I invite you, sir." 

That is the real spirit of soul winning. 

I wonder if we appreciate how great is the crime of unconcern so 
many of us show. 

Some years ago a well-known Christian was stopped on the street 

by a friend, with the question, "Mr. R , how long have we known 

each other ?" After a moment's thought, he replied : "I should think 
about fifteen years." "You claim to be a Christian, I believe." 
"Why, yes, I do." Then his friend asked, "Do you really believe 
I must accept Christ as my Saviour, if I am to be saved ?" "Yes, I 
do believe that." Then the still more significant question, "Do you 
care whether I am saved or not ?" "Why, certainly I do." "Well," 
said the friend, "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I do not 
believe it. As you say, we have been good friends for fifteen years; 
yet in all these years you have never once mentioned Jesus Christ to 
me. You are a leading business man of this city, and if you had 
ever told me that Christ was precious to you, and that he had a 
right to my life, and that I needed him as my Saviour, I would have 
listened to you with respect. But you never did it. We have talked 
about everything else under heaven, but never once have you men- 
tioned Christ to me. Of course, when I ask if you care whether I 
am saved, or not, you say you do ; but don't you see that if you had 
really cared one least little bit, you would have said something to 
me about it in fifteen years?" 

With shame and startled surprise, as he faced the fact of his 
actual unconcern, however much he might have professed to care, 
the Christian confessed that he had often dodged and shirked op- 
portunities that God had put right in his way to speak for Christ. 
But that incident marked the beginning of a great change in his life, 
for thereafter he became a great winner of souls. 

An experience of George Sherwood Eddy is thus mentioned in 
the Interchurch Bulletin: Mr. Eddy told of a predicament he was 
placed in by a rule made by the Chinese of Canton requiring "a 
ticket" before admission into a Christian meeting was permitted. 
"The ticket in this instance was not a piece of card-board, but was a 
person prepared to receive the message of Christianity," said Mr. 
Eddy. "I pushed my way through the crowd and presented myself 
at the door. The usher stopped me and asked me if my ticket was 
with me. Ticket?' I asked in surprise. *Why, I am the speaker.* 
*We know you are the speaker, Mr. Eddy, but the rule is that no one 



2i6 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

is to be admitted without a ticket, and we can make no exception 
in your case.' " Mr. Eddy was nonplussed. He then decided to 
meet the conditions. He went across the river, sought out Sun Yat 
Sen, the first President of the China Republic, urged him to ac- 
company him to the meeting, and with this distinguished Chinaman 
as his "ticket" had no difficulty in getting past the usher. Later he 
gave an evangelistic address. — H. 

A Suggestion 

Objective: Reaching church slackers; the re-winning of souls; 
re-enlisting the delinquent and their incorporation into the efficient 
body of the church. 

Method: 1. Definite list made; districted, assigned for repeated 
calls by organized workers, men and women, and by pastor. 

2. Simultaneous Re-Enlistment Day in the churches. 

Form Prayer Circles 

Dr. Andrew Murray wrote a book called the "Ministry of Inter- 
cession," in which he plead for more personal prayers. As Christ 
the Great Intercessor, the risen, ascended and enthroned Christ, ever 
lives and prays for us, so all his followers should become interces- 
sors, praying for those for whom Christ died. In every church there 
should be prayer circles, with definite purpose, to consist of but two 
kinds of souls — "Where one or two are agreed as touching anything 
it shall be done for them." Three may pledge themselves for con- 
cert-prayer — "Where two or three are met together I will be with 
them." Every person in the congregation should thus become an 
object of intercession. 

And when all believers become intercessors they will also be fitted 
for witnesses. They plead with men in God's behalf who plead with 
God in behalf of men. Let the desire for personal salvation of some 
particular soul flame in persistent prayer, and that same spiritual 
longing will flame words of appeal for the sake of Christ. 

Enlisting Helpers 

The following card has been used effectively by many pastors. 
It is supposed to be distributed at the proper time through the 
Church, the members generally being asked to take it and return it 
to the Pastor at their early convenience. On one side of the card 
is printed the following, with the pastor's name signed : 

Dear Friend: I am persuaded that, as a member of the church, 
you must have in mind at least some one person for whom you are 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 217 

concerned, and whom you would like to see come to Christ. There 
is no question but that your burden would be easier to bear if you 
had the consciousness that some one was praying with you. I, there- 
fore, would like to suggest that you write on the other side of this 
card the name and address of the person or persons in whom you 
are especially interested along this line, and that you sign your own 
name in the place indicated. I will agree to pray with you for all 
these, and also agree that your name is not in any way to be used 
in connection with any work which I may do personally with 
them. 



Pastor. 

Mr. Moody used to say that it was far better to set ten men to 
work than for one to attempt to do the work of ten men. No 
greater blessing could come to a church than that the. members 
should be inspired to enter upon some special service. Each pastor 
would be more effective if he could know that his people were 
actively aroused to the duty of personal evangelism and were en- 
gaged in direct effort to reclaim the lapsed church members and to 
win the unsaved to Christ. — Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

Methods in Revival Work 

There are no machine methods that will certainly produce revivals 
or be effective in their conduct. Much more depends upon the pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit than upon methods. With his help almost any 
methods will be successful. Yet we are not to despise methods, for 
God works through instrumentalities, and he has blessed some men 
and some methods more than he has others. There are two mistakes 
that we should carefully avoid. We must not depend upon any 
men or any methods. God and his Spirit and his Word are our 
reliance. We must not dictate to God, nor limit him in his choice 
of instruments and methods. 

Because some have been truly converted who have come to the 
front seats as inquirers we are not to imagine that any sanctity at- 
taches to those seats, or that God is any more willing to save there 
than elsewhere. Because pastors are the wisely appointed leaders of 
the flock we must not put conditions on the Lord and tell him that 
if he does not save our people through our instrumentality, no 
neighboring pastor or evangelist shall come to our help. If God 
blesses some churches with a regular and moderate growth they 
should not be suspicious because in other churches persons are con- 
verted by scores, or even by thousands, as on the day of Pentecost. 
Christians whose ability and goodness are unchallenged sometimes 
seem to hinder the cause they love. They are willing and anxious 



2i8 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

that God should convert men if he will only do it in ways to which 
they and their fathers have been accustomed ; but they are suspicious 
of any other measures. Now God is a Sovereign and has a great 
many methods of reaching the hearts of men for their conversion 
and revival, and if any church or any minister dictates to him that 
he must bless only the one method to which they have been ac- 
customed probably he will not conform to their traditions. Some 
years of experience and observation convince me that this is one 
important reason why in some churches drouth prevails and revivals 
are the rare exceptions. They pray and work and wonder why 
God passes them by. They do not honor his sovereignty. They 
bind his free and wondrous working to the narrow limits of their 
wisdom and their traditions. 

What methods have been owned of God, so that we may expect 
his blessing on their use ? 

God has blessed the preaching of the truth as an important means 
of preparing the way for revivals, and for conducting them. 

What kinds of truth have been thus effective? Those sermons 
that have been skimmed from the daily papers? Those that are 
evolved from the columns of crimes and accidents, or from science, 
and history and poetry ? Those methods of preaching may be inter- 
esting. But if the aim of the preacher is to lead to Christ as well 
as to attract hearers, and to secure conversions rather than compli- 
ments, the great bulk of preaching will not be of that kind. We 
should aim rather to present those truths that tend to awaken 
faith in God and in the Bible. We should aim to strengthen faith 
in God's promises to those who pray, and lead Christians to con- 
secration and to an expectation of God's help. The preacher must 
honor the Holy Spirit, and make him known in his character and his 
work. He will strive, as Peter did on the day of Pentecost, to 
deepen conviction of sin and then will hold up Christ as a Saviour. 
He may not find this preaching popular; but if these truths are 
kindly and intelligently presented and are welcomed in any congre- 
gation, the Lord will certainly bless that church with frequent and 
gracious revivals. 

God has also honored the method of holding frequent and repeated 
services for prayer and preaching. 

Yet he is not confined to this method. There have been in rare 
cases revivals and rich ingatherings where only the ordinary services 
have been held. 

There is a true philosophy, however, underlying this method of 
holding repeated services. Impressions are often made on the 
Sabbath and they are wiped out completely by the six busy days 
of the week. During special services, this impression is repeated on 
Monday evening, and deepened on Tuesday and the following even- 
ings. In this way, though there was no interest at first, the atten- 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 219 

tion IS gained, and attention deepens into conviction, and conviction 
leads to decision and conversion. 

Churches often make a mistake in being afraid to begin special 
services unless there is already manifestation of interest. If there 
are "indications," they will go forward ; if not they will wait. That 
may be walking by sight, and not by faith. The widow woman, in 
obedience to the command of Elisha and in reliance on his promises 
sent out for the empty earthen vessels when there were no indi- 
cations that her one pot of oil would overflow. If she had waited 
for "indications," doubtless there would have been none. The dis- 
ciples were in one accord in prayer and supplication, in obedience 
to Christ's command and promise when as yet there were no indi- 
cations of the Pentecostal blessing. I have known many occasions 
when there were no special indications of a coming blessing and the 
outlook seemed almost hopeless ; and yet God has blessed the repeated 
presentation of his truth, till the attention was compelled and Chris- 
tians were revived. If the members of any church will gather 
around the pastor prayerfully, while the truth is presented by him 
night after night in a warm, earnest, believing manner, I firmly 
believe that God will bless that Church with a revival. 

Sometimes there are great advantages in inviting a neighboring 
pastor or an evangelist to do most of the preaching, as that releases 
the pastor to do much personal work for which he is well qualified. 

God has blessed various methods of asking the thoughtful to mani- 
fest their interest. 

We do our churches harm if we dare to dictate to God that he 
must deal with inquirers only in ways to which we have been ac- 
customed. A young man just from the seminary became assistant 
pastor of a large church in a Western city. The pastor was an able 
man, but was in feeble health. The young man, with enthusiasm of 
youth, pressed those truths that would naturally lead to a revival. 
Soon there was an interest manifested in the Sabbath-school, and 
two or three meetings were appointed for the children and young 
people, and the interest deepened. He felt strongly that it was best 
to ask those to rise who wished to become Christians. He knew 
that that method had never been tried in that church, and that the 
Pastor and Session disapproved of it. What could he do? He 
took the responsibility, and gave the invitation, and six young people 
rose. He went home and told the pastor; but the success had justi- 
fied the attempt, and the pastor said nothing agamst it, and after- 
wards, when he was able to attend the meetings, he sometimes used 
the same method. During some union meetings we followed the 
method of our Methodist brethren and invited inquirers to come to 
the front seats. There were good results, and I never knew of any 
harm. In another series of union meetings the lecture room was 
used for the inquirers. In another place, after the sermon, an op- 



no THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

portunity was given for any to retire who wished ; but all were in- 
vited to remain who were willing that the pastor should talk with 
them on the subject of personal religion. It matters not so much 
what method is employed, as that some way be taken to meet in- 
quirers personally for their instruction. It is our duty not only to 
preach, but to press them to an immediate decision for Christ, and 
then lead them to a public confession of his name. — Rev. H. M. M. 

Commit 'Em 

Acts 13:43; 18:4. Cor. 5:11. IJno. 3:19. 

Several years ago at Lake Geneva Student Conference, I was 
asked by Mr. Escobar, a Mexican student, if I would not speak to 
the Latin American delegates who were there as guests of the con- 
ference. 

"What shall I say to them?" I inquired. 

"Commit 'em, commit 'em," was his answer. 

After a brief talk I "committed 'em," 23 young men expressing 
their decision on a paper after I had left. 

"How many were there, Mr. Escobar ?" I afterward asked him. 

"Twenty- three," was his reply. 

The next year I was again asked to address the same delegation 
of Latin- American students by Mr. Escobar. And to my inquiry 
as to what I should say he again exhorted me to "commit 'em." 

"How about the 23 that were committed last time ?" 

"Oh, I visit the Latin-American Students in the colleges of 
United States and 600 have signed the paper declaring their ac- 
ceptance of Jesus Christ." — Bishop Theodore S. Henderson. 

It is good business to commit 'em. 

Revival Methods 

The best hand-book on revivals is the Book of Acts. If you 
desire a revival in your church, a God-inspired, God-continued, and 
God-approved revival you can have it by following out the program 
in Acts 19. 

I. Secure a company of believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, as 
a saving remnant. Vs. 1-7. Paul secured twelve laymen in 
Ephesus, God has always saved by a remnant, Isa. 1 : 9. God would 
have saved Sodom if there had been a faithful remnant. Gen. 
18 : 23-33 ; Pentecost was made possible on the human side, by a 
faithful remnant of 120. Acts 1 : 13-15. Every revival has been 
inaugurated by the prayers and practice of a Spirit-filled remnant. 

II. Public services, (a) Where they were held. (1) In the 
synagogue. V. 8. The regularly stated place of worship was first 
used. Some things in the church are not to be commended, but 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 221 

Christ founded the church to accompHsh his work. Revivals can 
be, and ought to be conducted by the church. (2) In the school of 
Tyrannus. V. 9. Daily meetings were held for two years in this 
public hall. Christ preached in the temple and out of it. If the 
people will not come to the church, we must take the church to 
them. The command of Christ is, "Go out and bring them in." 
Luke 14: 21. The problem is to get a hearing for Christ among the 
unsaved; get a hearing, and you get a revival. Go where you can 
get a hearing! (b) The message in the meetings. It is one thing 
to get a hearing; the next problem is what to give the people when 
you secure a hearing. Notice what Paul's message was. (1) "The 
things concerning the Kingdom of God." V. 8. Not politics, nor 
literature, nor science, but the Kingdom of God. (2) The word of 
the Lord Jesus. V. 10. Christ was the theme of his preaching 
everywhere. 1 Cor. 2:2,- (3) "Kept back nothing that was profit- 
able." Acts 20 : 20. Not pleasure, but profit, was his object. (4) 
"The whole counsel of God." Acts 20 : 27. Sin as well as salvation, 
the future as well as the present. 

III. The spirit of the messenger, (a) Tenderest compassion; 
"with tears." Acts 20 : 31. Not with professional courtesy, but with 
personal love, (b) Persevering industry ; "night and day." Acts 
20: 31. Not by spasm, but by patient, persistent labor. 

IV. Personal work. Acts 20:20, 21. He went from house to 
house pleading with the people to accept Christ. Personal contact 
focuses the public message upon the individual life. Pray and labor 
for a revival of individual work for individuals in your church and 
community. 

V. Results, (a) All heard the word. V. 10. (b) Some were 
hardened and disobedient. V. 9. (c) Many repented, believed, 
and confessed Christ. V. 18-20. (d) "No small stir;" holy con- 
fusion. V. 23, 29. (e) Some were mad. V. 28. (f) Epistle to 
the Ephesians. Lord, multiply such revivals. — T. S. Henderson, 
D.D. 

Evangelistic Program for Churches 

1. A family altar in every home and daily intercession for the 
children and the church. 

2. A neighborhood survey by every congregation for the purpose 
of discovering the number of unsaved persons in their community, 
and fixing a definite goal. 

3. A definite, prayerful, persistent eflFort for the saving of souls 
by every organization in each church. 

4. The organization of prayer circles and personal workers' leagues 
in every congregation. A more aggressive personal effort — man to 
man — woman to woman — in seeking to bring them to Christ. 



222 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

5. The night service especially made thoroughly evangelistic, with 
appeals by the pastor and definite efforts to secure immediate de- 
cision. 

6. Prayerful and faithful instruction, and a constant effort made 
by pastors, officers and teachers to secure an acceptance of Christ 
by every member of the Sabbath school as they reach the age of dis- 
cretion. 

7. A definite season set apart at least once each year for protracted 
preaching, prayer and work for soul winning. 

8. Careful conserving of forces, and following up of non-resident 
members. — Rev. W. H. Miley, D.D. 



Soul Re- winning 

It is doubtful if our churches are over fifty per cent, efficient. 
Are they that? In the matter of attendance alone, are our members 
fifty per cent, regular? The Evangelistic Committee suggests an im- 
mediate campaign for the round-up of slackers. We suggest that 
each pastor make a list of his members in good standing; we mean 
those who are in attendance, who support the church, and who take 
part in its work. We suggest that another list be made of those who 
are delinquent — Slackers. Then let the emphasis for the present 
season be placed upon the reaching of these, the securing of their 
enlistment, the incorporation of them into the efficient body of the 
church. 

For a tim^e, let us lay our emphasis in evangelism, not so much on 
the winning of souls as upon THE RE-WINNING OF SOULS. 
With the aid of the official boards and other capable workers, men 
and women alike, let us see that the delinquent are called upon, 
repeatedly called upon, rounded-up for the Army of Christ. "Killed 
in action" is a coveted crown. But "Killed by inaction" is a tramp's 
doom — yes, a religious tramp's doom, and a religious slacker's doom. 

Let us rescue our slackers from that doom. Let each pastor put 
first effort into his calls on the delinquent. Neglect the faithful 
for a while. Organize the best men and women for calling upon 
those who are not faithful. Have a definite list. Give each person 
a limited district of the parish, or a list of special calls. Suggest 
a definite purpose for each call. 

Our Government took men with some physical infirmity and 
through an operation or other medical attention made them "fit to 
fight." Let us aim this season at the rehabilitation of our under- 
developed. Let us make them "fit to fight" in the Christian warfare. 
Let us enlist them; enroll them; drill them. Let us aim to double 
the Christian army by working up and working in all our slackers. 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 223 

Secondly, and as an aid to this end, we suggest a general and 
simultaneous Re-Enlistment Day within our bounds. If not earlier 
it might be the first Sunday in January — the first Sunday in the new 
year. It might be called Mobilization Day, or Church Attendance 
Day. Let it be a day for the universal going to church — a day for 
the resumption of the habit of going to church. The whole week, 
the first week of the new year, might be used as Re-Enlistment 
Week. Some Christians thus might renew the prayer-meeting habit 
too. 

We suggest that all our pastors put new emphasis in their preach- 
ing upon the duty of church attendance, and upon the value of 
church attendance. Point out also the great weakening that comes 
to the Church of Christ by neglect of attendance on the part of 
Christians. 

The ultimate objective of the Church is not that it should be a 
shrine for worship merely. But if people do not worship they are 
not likely to work. Our worshipping members are our working 
members, as we all know. The real objective of the Church is the 
crowning of Christ as King by men and women, who, standing on 
the outside, get their first impressions of Christ and of Christianity 
from the Church. How important, then, that the Church itself should 
be a live, one hundred per cent, efficient and attractive body. The 
great and all-important lesson for us to learn is that the Church in 
order to influence the community life and permeate society with 
the Christian spirit, must itself be at the highest possible point of 
spiritual vigor. The Church is the leaven that is to leaven the whole 
lump. The leaven is put into the meal not for its own sake, but 
for the sake of the meal. The Church was not founded for its own 
sake, but for the world's. But the leaven itself must have life. Is 
church attendance worth while? Yes, if the salvation of the world 
is worth while. For others' sakes we must sanctify ourselves. 
With the Divine purpose in founding the Church before us, have 
we not a right to ask that every member be present at every regular 
appointment of the church of which he or she is an integral part, 
unless providentially kept away? And this, not alone for their 
own sakes, but in order that the perfect body of Christ, with every 
member intact, shall be presented to the world in the unity of life 
and power? 

There are fundamental reasons, educational, social, spiritual and I^J**^"*^ 
missionary, for the regular attendance of all members on the services "^ 
of the Church. Let us enter a Campaign for the Round-Up of 
Slackers, to the very end that the slackers themselves shall become 
good soldiers and that the whole Church shall become efficient for 
Christ and in his Cause. There is strategy in such evangelism. 
We shall win the world if we win the church. — H. 



224 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

"Win One" Band 

With God's help I will try and win some one for Christ 

this 

Name 

Address ..,.., 

My Church is , 

Pre-Revival Work 

We would commend to all the importance of earnest pre-revival 
work. Special work requires special preparation. We have been 
told of a small engine in a battleship whose sole duty was to start 
the main engine going. Without it the powerful machinery that 
moved the vessel could with difficulty begin its task, if it could 
do so at all; yet when once started it could accomplish easily all 
that was expected of it. There are some churches that expect to 
have a revival simply by having announcement made that the special 
meetings will begin, and then gathering the faithful at the appointed 
time and beginning. Sometimes a revival may result, as fish are 
sometimes caught in unpromising places, but such utter lack of 
preparation should forbid all murmurings at the mysterious ways 
of Providence if total failure results. **God moves in a mysterious 
way," it is true, and one of his mysterious ways is that in the 
matter of soul saving he has chosen to use us men and women as 
his instruments. But this does not mean that we are to be so utterly 
without will or thought of our own that we do nothing but vacantly 
wait to see how the Lord will use us. In every community there is 
abundant material for the soul winner to work upon, but he must 
be prepared by consecration, by prayer, by the Word, by alliance 
with the divine Spirit, to deal with the situation. We urge full and 
careful preparation for the special meetings. Results are sure — sure 
as the promises of God. 

Revival means ''life again." Oh, how God longs for it every- 
where! He has paid the price for it. Let us take it from his 
outstretched hands. Are we really desiring it? "O Lord, send us 
a revival ; and begin in me." Is that our daily, constant prayer? 

The first requisite for reaching dead souls and quickening them is 
Life. To be ourselves alive from the dead is the first step. The 
second requisite is more Life. Not merely enough to save us, but 
enough to fill us and keep us in the way of righteousness. The 
third requisite is more abundant Life. Not only enough to fill and 
keep, but enough TO OVERFLOW. "He that believeth . . . 
from within him shall flow rivers of living water." How obtain 
this Life? "He that hath the Son hath life." Let us yield our- 
selves to be made an incarnation of Christ, as Christ was of the 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 225 

Father. So shall each of us become not merely a "living soul" but 
a "quickening spirit." 

Leading Souls to Decision 

In a neighboring village, during my first pastorate, a Rev. Mr. 

R. was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church. He was 

very successful in leading the people of his community, both young 
and old, to the Christian decision. He has since become one of 
the leading ministers of his denomination and has more than ful- 
filled the high expectations cherished for him by the friends of his 
earlier years in the pastorate. 

Finding a growing interest in spiritual things in my own church 
I went to take counsel with this brother minister, neighbor and 
friend, and asked him how he was so successful in leading souls 
to a decision for Christ. 

I do not recall any special suggestions he gave, for it was more 
than twenty years ago, but I do recall that he recited many instances 
of his dealings with individuals. I remember especially one young 
woman he mentioned, for whose conversion he had been hoping. 
He had preached as earnestly as he could, at an evening service, 
and at the close invited all who were especially interested to re- 
main to a brief inquiry meeting in the chapel. As he himself came 
to the door of the inquiry room, and others were passing in, he 
noticed this young woman standing in a hesitating attitude near 
the entrance. He spoke a mere word of invitation as he was pass- 
ing near her, put his hand lightly on her arm, and gave the slightest 
suggestion of a push toward the door. She seemed to make the 
decision and came in. In later days she confessed that that little 
push decided her. She said she was literally pushed into the King- 
dom. 

It is evident that a very little thing may decide when a soul is 
just trembling in the balance. 

We once heard a testimony given in the Brick Church, Rochester, 
N. Y., by a man who said his decision was determined by an act 
even slighter than a gentle push. It was during the pastorate of the 
now sainted Rev. Dr. James Boylan Shaw, who was pastor of that 
church for fifty years and had the joy of witnessing many seasons of 
revival, and of seeing his church grow from a few score to upwards 
of two thousand members. This man attended a meeting when Dr. 
Shaw preached and at the close invited those who would to meet 
him in the inquiry room. The venerable pastor had gone to the 
desk of the chapel room when this man, as he said, came near the 
door, hesitating but not decided to go in, when Dr. Shaw caught 
his eye and beckoned to him to come in. The man testified that that 
beckoning hand decided him. He went in and found Christ. He 
said, "I was beckoned into the Kingdom." 



226 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

On the other hand there are others who seem to need entirely 
different treatment. I have just read the testimony of a minister 
in regard to his deaHng with a young woman who seemed to need 
the use of an entirely different method. He says : "A young woman 
last year was in great concern about her soul and I had frequently 
talked with her. I placed Christ before her very plainly, but she 
did not seem to see it. One morning she came to me after service. 
•Dear sir, will you pray for me?' She was thunderstruck when I 
said, 'No.'' *But, sir, I am very anxious to be saved; will you not 
please pray for me?' 'No,' I said. 'Oh, sir, you don't mean it.' 
'Yes, I do. I have set Jesus Christ before you; if you will not 
have him there's no use praying. There is no other way. Here 
I've been all my life learning that way, and if there be another it 
would be a queer job. Will you have Christ or will you not?' 
There was a pause; then she said, 'Yes, I will if I may.' 'May?' 
said I. 'He has put it, "Whosoever will may come;" "Him that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out;" "He that believeth 
shall be saved." ' 'Well, I will,' she said. 'Then let us get down 
directly, and pray now — if you are willing to obey God's command- 
ment, then we may pray.' We did pray, and I am sure that young 
woman has never doubted she was saved from that hour. 

"If you will not believe in Jesus, all the praying between heaven 
and earth will not save you. But if you seek him in simple faith, 
soon you shall say with rejoicing. 'I have found him whom my 
soul loveth, and I will never let him go.' " 

Suggestive Form of Membership Application 

1. Confessing the Lord Jesus Christ, 

("And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2: 11.) 

2. And having consciously received him, 

("He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But 
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons 
of God, even to them that believe on his name." John 1 : 11, 12.) 

3. Through hearing and believing, 

("Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my Word, and 
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life and shall not 
come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." 
John 5: 24.) 

4. And having followed him in the public ordinance of baptism, 
or purposing to do so, 

("Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them m the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
Matthew 28:19.) 

5. And purposing to walk in newness of life, 

("Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 227 

like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
Father, even so we should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4.) 

6. And whatsoever else becometh the followers of Christ, 
("Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 

are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; 
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things." Philippians 4:8.) 

7. And purposing to attend the services of the church, 

("Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the 
manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the 
more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25.) 

8. And take part in them, 

("But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, 
or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; And 
thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling 
down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you 
of a truth." 1 Corinthians 14: 24, 25.) 

9. And preparing to bring my tithes into the storehouse, 
("Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be 

meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord 
of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour 
you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." 
Malachi3:10.) 

10. As God has prospered me, 

("Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by 
him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings 
when I come." 1 Corinthians 16:2.) 

11. And being prompted by the Spirit, 

("Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go nea;-, and join thyself 
to this chariot." Acts 8 : 29.) 

12. I hereby apply for membership in the church to which this is 
presented, 

("Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the 
Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Acts 
2:47.) 



Signature. 
Care and Culture of Converts 



A genuine conversion is a good beginning. Nothing can take the 
place of renewing grace. There is only one door into the kingdom 
of God. Christ is the way, and no man can enter the kingdom but 
by him. A thorough evangelical conversion can not be too strongly 
emphasized. 



228 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

The responsibility of the Church is only well begun when tl\e 
revival is over. The culture and care of young converts challenge 
the utmost concern of the Church. This is the problem which de- 
mands her greatest endeavors. 

How can this be compassed? 

I. First, let the glow of the revival continue. Converts thrive 
best in a tropical climate. If for nothing else, the Church needs a 
thorough revival to rekindle the spirit of brotherly love. How 
the hearty, warm hand-shaking asserts itself in a revival. This 
delightful fellowship should be kept up. The converts have been 
received with open arms and accorded a royal welcome into the 
communion. When the spiritual thermometer drops, the converts 
feel the chill, and wonder why the same warm greetings are not 
in evidence. The Church should never lose interest in the con- 
verts. They have cost her too much to be put in cold storage, 
v/here they will be frozen to death. 

They must become active workers or die. Drones are spongers 
and short-lived. Converts must go forward or stagnate. 

II. Second, they must be furnished with good reading. They 
■can not live on chaff. The Bible is the text book. The sincere 
milk of the Word is essential to healthy Christian growth. 

III. Third, converts should be pressed to a complete consecration 
to God, and kept on the run for the higher reaches of faith. Their 
motto should be, "Holiness to the Lord," and their watchword, 
"Onward." The gospel provides delicious fare for young converts. 
The Church should spread the feast before them. To depend upon 
social entertainments to hold and save young converts is a serious 
mistake. They need spiritual edification and substantial nourish- 
ment. Give them plenty to eat and plenty to do, and they will grow 
and become strong in the Lord. — Rev. J. W. Hill, D.D. 

The Worker 

1. Be right with God. 

2. Be exceedingly gentle. 

3. Watch for opportunities. 

4. Never detain a person against his will. 

5. When possible deal with inquirer alone. 

6. Do not allow yourself to be drawn into an argument. 

7. Avoid giving too much of your own experience; possibly no 
two may have the same experience. 

The Inquirer 

1. Must depend entirely upon Christ for salvation. 

2. Use your own Bible, and have inquirers read for themselves. 



SOME METHODS IN EVANGELISM 229 

3. Tell them they must give up every known sin. 

4. Must openly confess Christ. 

5. Have inquirers pray for themselves. 

6. If possible and wise, have the person kneel when you pray. 
Never make a long prayer. — Rev. W. A. Sunday. 



VI 

LENTEN EVANGELISM 

The Lenten season has of late years — owing to the special em- 
phasis placed upon it by some branches of the Church, and the 
resulting temporary staying of the tide of worldliness and frivolity 
at that time — proved peculiarly favorable to the promotion of re- 
ligious interest. Its connection vi^ith the death and resurrection of 
our Lord, increasingly recognized in all branches of the Church, 
would seem to make it a most opportune time for the quickening of 
Christians for spiritual life and service, and for seeking earnestly 
the conversion of the unsaved. 

Climax at Easter Communion 

The Easter Communion is the climax of the year. The Lenten 
season which precedes is especially adapted to intensive evangelistic 
work among all ages in the Church and community. Evangelism 
is our great work. Let us make more than ever of it. You desire 
results. Then preach the true Gospel of God's saving grace and 
love. You recall that well known story of the work of the late 
evangelist, Rev. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman. Two ministers in Boston 
were leaving Tremont Temple after Dr. Chapman had preached. 
"The same old thing," said one of them with a sneer. "Yes," 
replied the other, "with the same old results." It will always be so. 
Preach the real Gospel and the results will come. "My word shall 
not return unto me void.*' "And ye shall know that I am in the 
midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, 
and my people shall never be asham^ed. And it shall come to pass 
afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your 
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream 
dreams, your young men shall see visions ; and also upon the servant 
and upon the handmaid in those days will I pour out my Spirit. 
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and 
fire, and pillars of smoke" (Joel 2:27-30). 

In these days of world-wide unrest, we turn to the prophets and 
to history to discover if possible the meaning of it all. 

For years, many of us have been praying and believing for a 
world-wide revival when Joel's prophecy shall be more perfectly 
fulfilled than on the day when Peter stood up and said, "Men and 

230 



LENTEN EVANGELISM 231 

brethen, this is that which was spokeji by the prophet Joel." We 
are among the number who believe the church is now facing the 
opportunity of her existence. When the church of Jesus Christ 
numbered 120, she "turned the world upside down." What can 
God do with her now, if his Holy Spirit falls upon her and tongues 
of fire sit upon each member? Look at our great army of Christian 
Endeavorers and Sunday-school pupils. There are the missionary 
societies. We are organized to take the world for Christ if we go 
about it in the right way. 

Revival Essentials 

In all the leaders and in all the workers there should be: 

1. A holy spirit. This is vital. It reaches to the motives for 
action. This work must be undertaken solely for the glory of God. 

2. A forbearing spirit. Do not criticise the absent. Do not find 
fault with those who are in attendance. Be thankful that so many 
are present. Do not scold sinners. 

3. A praying spirit. Do not say any prayers. Pray often, and in 
secret. Secure the spirit of prayer. Do not grudge the time spent 
on your knees. 

4. A working spirit. This will prepare a new message for every 
night. It will send you out after the man who needs you the most. 
It will fill you with energy, push, fire, and zeal. 

5. A self-denying spirit. Deny yourself all things, everything 
that may hinder you or divert your mind from the one work of the 
hour. 

6. A burdened spirit. Only when Zion travails are souls born 
into the kingdom. 

7. A persevering spirit. Set your stakes and stay by them. Never 
give up. The Lord is never defeated. 

8. A trusting spirit. Take God at his word. Take a promise, 
comply with the conditions, and then expect its fulfillment. 

9. A bold spirit. Describe sin as it is, and sins as they are. Call 
things by their right names. Do not gloss. Tell the truth. Set 
forth the great doctrines of sin, punishment, regeneration, sanctifi- 
cation. Proclaim the law until men are pricked in their consciences. 
Do not flinch. Do not cringe. Do not compromise. Have a holy 
confidence in the truth you preach. So declare it that men will be- 
lieve that you believe it. You are God's ambassador. Deliver the 
message as he gave it to you. Let him have a chance to use his 
own power in that message. 

10. A persuasive spirit. Beg, exhort, entreat, with every art and 
device at your command. Study to find a way to the sinner's heart. 
Hold up Jesus as the mighty Saviour. Persuade your fellow-men 
to accept him. Do not argue nor waste time where there is no 



232 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

conviction. Do not try to do the work of the Holy Spirit, which 
is to give conviction to men. But exhort and persuade. 

IL A loving spirit. Look at your fellow-man as you do at your 
own brother. Love him as you do your own. See how sin has 
injured and defaced him. He is a wreck because of being overcome 
by the devil. Think of the end if he be not rescued. Help him 
up and out. He is blind and cannot see. Be eyes to him. Be will 
for him. In some way make him believe that you love him. 

12. A praiseful spirit. Praise the Lord for the victory that is to 
be. Shout before you can see. Shout in faith. Do not make a 
shout ; but if the Lord gives you a shout, let it out. 

13. Over all, above all, and in all one must have the Holy Spirit. 
Do not forget that the Holy Spirit must have a holy spirit with 
which to abide. — Henry W. Bennett, D.D. 

The Lenten Message 

Evangelistic preaching is capable of greater variety than any other 
sort of preaching. It is all working toward one result, to be sure, 
but there are many roads that lead to Rome. The claim of Christ 
on a man is so wide, so imperious, that it can be asserted in an im- 
mense variety of ways. Recently I talked with the greatest special- 
ist on nervous disorders in our country, and found him waiting to 
hear from a letter which he had written to a dipsomaniac who had 
come to him for help. He said he had presented in a long letter 
every plea he could think of from the certain ruin of health to the 
equally certain ruin of his immortal soul. If he could find the chord 
in the man's soul which would respond, he could hope to save him. 
That was part of his greatness. He had no cut-and-dried way of 
dealing with each case. There was only one thing he wanted to ac- 
complish, but he would come at it by any path. If we make evangel- 
istic preaching a serious business, we can do it so that neither we 
nor our people will be wearied by iteration. In a ministers* meet- 
ing once a man said : "There are only about twenty great evangel- 
istic texts in the Bible." Even a common preacher could find a thou- 
sand, and the man who habituates himself to see the appeal of Christ 
in texts will find ten times that many. The great thing is that the 
preacher shall have in mind constantly the thing he is after — a 
decision for Christ. Then let him come to that goal from any 
angle. 

The best preparation for evangelistic preaching is some definite 
work for the winning of men to Christ If the pulpit is the only 
place where a man pleads for Christ then the appeal loses its eager- 
ness. Its vitality is gone. No man can know what his fellowmen 
are thinking or feeling unless he comes into personal contact with 
them.— C. B. McAfee, D.D. 



LENTEN EVANGELISM 233 

The Need 

L Church members themselves need the stimulus which comes 
from active personal effort. 

2. There are very many persons in the community whose Church 
membership has not been transferred. They have no identification, 
with the Church in the town or city where they live. Feeling no 
responsibility there is a great danger that the child of God may 
become almost a hindrance to the cause of Christ, and as a matter 
of fact the presence of many lapsed members in a community lowers 
the spiritual atmosphere more than the presence of the unsaved. 

3. The pastor sorely needs the assistance not only of his church 
officers, but of his entire membership. 

4. There are many persons who are waiting for a definite invita- 
tion to come to Christ. The preaching of the minister is not enough. 
It is believed that scores of people would come to Christ if they 
were personally invited. 

5. There are very many persons who are pre-engaged. Their ac- 
tivities are controlled by their own personal interests and they re- 
quire a direct and definite appeal to realize the necessity of devoting 
themselves to Christ and his service. 

Critical Hours in Religion 

One advantage of the Lenten season is that there is more general 
thoughtfulness on religion and it is easier to get people to think. 

There are critical hours in religion, especially in the matter of the 
soul's salvation. That young man spoken of in the Gospel by Mark 
was at such a point. It is said that when Jesus saw that he answered 
discreetly, he said unto him, "Thou art not far from the kingdom 
of God." Not far! That means near. 

There are critical hours that come into every life. Some of these 
have to do with worldly matters. "There is a tide in the affairs of 
men which, taken at its flood, leads on to fortune." If the astrono- 
mer wishes to see the transit of Venus after his months of prepara- 
tion, there comes a critical hour when he must not sleep, but be 
awake and alert and watchful. There often comes a critical hour in 
sickness, as in fever, when the life of the patient depends on the 
watchfulness of the nurse and faithfulness in the administration of 
stimulants. 

But let us be well aware that there are critical hours in spiritual 
matters also. One may be very near to the kingdom of God and yet 
not in it. There can not be a question, that, of persons who are as 
yet unsaved, some are nearer to salvation than are others. There 
are circumstances in life; there are elements of character; there are 
conditions of mind which make one man's case more hopeful than 



234 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

that of another. Of these hopeful cases the young scribe to whom 
Christ spoke was one. Let us notice some of the features of his 
case that evidently brought from our Saviour's lips the words: 
'Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." What were some of 
the hopeful features of his condition? For one thing, he was not 
far from the kingdom, because he had begun to think seriously on 
religion. You observe that in his manner and language there was 
no trace of frivolity or captiousness. He was not one of your light- 
headed, brainless fellows, bragging of his unbelief. For such no 
one can have anything but contempt. But as a young lawyer he was 
evidently accustomed to think, and now he was in a state of serious 
inquiry in religious matters. It is always a hopeful indication when 
a man begins really to think upon religion and the interests of his 
soul. 

It is marvelous how little some people think about religion, and 
how difficult it is to get them to think at all. Tell a man with a dis- 
eased finger that he is likely to lose it, and how he will sicken at the 
thought! Tell him that he is liable to lose his soul, and in many 
cases, he displays not the least anxiety or concern. He is far from 
the kingdom. But when one begins to realize the worth of his soul, 
to consider seriously, to think, his condition is beginning to be hope- 
ful. It was because this young man was thinking, was seriously 
considering the welfare of his soul, was devoutly feeling his way 
and seeking further light, that our Lord looked him so kindly in 
the face and said : "Thou art not far from the kingdom." 

And he was not far from the kingdom, because he had already 
begun to attach more importance to the spirit than to the letter. 
We are fully convinced that the Saviour was struck with this fea- 
ture of this case. It is perfectly evident that this young lawyer had 
come to see that the spiritual side of religion was of far greater im- 
portance than the ceremonial. To love the Lord with all one's heart 
and to love one's neighbor as one's self, was more, he said, than 
all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. That was getting a 
good long way into the reality of religion. 

Another favorable indication is that he seemed desirous of living 
up to all the light he had. He did not seem to be trying to raise 
an argument or draw Christ into a religious controversy. He was 
not evading. He seemed honest and humble, of teachable spirit, 
truly seeking the light; and this is yet another reason why Christ 
could say to him, "Thou art not far from the kingdom." And an- 
other favorable fact is that he was amiable and virtuous. Of course, 
amiability and virtue are not saving graces ; but such qualities do 
make men more attractive to Christ than the opposite qualities do. 
It was not because he was so bad, but because he was so good, that 
Christ looking upon him could say, "Thou art not far from the 
kingdom." 



LENTEN EVANGELISM 235 

But though in a very hopeful state there were some special 
dangers in his condition. Some of the most hopeful features of a 
soul's condition may be accompanied by the most threatening and 
awful dangers. 

Oh, how many of these "hopeful cases" have we seen, young men 
and young women, older men and older women, who at the critical 
moment turned back — gave up their efforts to follow Christ! A 
hopeful state is a state with the very grave danger that the soul may 
slip back again into a worse condition than before. 

A second danger is lest the awakened soul be content to stop at 
the spot it has already reached. Not far from the kingdom is not 
within the kingdom. Almost saved is not altogether saved. The 
man in the snow storm on the Dakota prairie was "lost in sight of 
home." After safely circumnavigating the globe the "Royal Char- 
ter" went to pieces on the coast of Wales, almost within the harbor. 
Nearness is not possession. Almost saved is not saved. It is a 
dangerous thing for an awakened sinner to stop where he is. 

The case of the young lawyer also reveals a condition which had 
very pressing and immediate duties. Any one who is thus at a 
crisis in securing salvation has the same duties confronting him or 
her. What are some of them? The very first is of thankfulness to 
God that he is already dealing so graciously with you. If you are 
sincerely thoughtful, have discovered the importance of spirit above 
mere form, and have a genuine interest in religion, in your soul's 
welfare, you have great reason for gratitude to God, and you should 
express your thanks to him for his gracious dealings with you. An- 
other immediate duty is for you to recognize your need of divine 
help, that you may fully enter into the kingdom. The kingdom is 
half won when you recognize your own helplessness. 

The other duty is that you shall decide at once and commit your- 
self wholly to God's saving grace. In other words, it is to make an 
immediate and full surrender of yourself to him, and for all time. 
It is such a surrender, and nothing short of it, that carries the soul 
from being not far from the kingdom, to being fully within the 
kingdom. — H. 

Lenten Preparatory Class 

PREPARATION FOR DECISION DAY 

Lesson I 

God Our Father 

In every land in the world where human life is found, there is 
some idea of an unseen being or beings, who can exert an influence 
for good or evil on individual lives. Consider India, with her wor- 



236 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

ship of stone images found along the highways; Africa, whose 
natives believe in ever-present evil spirits, etc. 

1. The Development of the Early Hebrew Conception of God in 
the Old Testament; Creator, Leader, Lawgiver, Judge, King. 

As other books teach certain definite subjects, so in the Bible we 
learn about God. It records God's gradual revealing of himself to 
his children, covering a period of about sixteen hundred years. 

2. The New Testament Conception of God. 

Jesus referred naturally to God as his Father. Luke 2 : 49 ; Mat- 
thew 11:25, 26; John 11:41. 

Jesus taught that God was our Heavenly Father also. Luke 
15:11:32. 

3. Our Father and We. 

He is none the less real because we cannot see him. We cannot 
see "gravitation" or electricity, but we know they are facts. 

He knows our needs before we ask or even know them. Matthew 
6:8. 

What did our earthly fathers do for us before we were able to 
do for ourselves? 

Our Heavenly Father understands our personal needs in school, 
in daily work, in life plan, because he sees the whole stretch of our 
life from beginning to end. 

He is more ready to do for us than an earthly father. Matthew 
7:11. 

He wants us to have the best of everything — education, pleasure, 
work, etc. 

He will watch over us. John 10 : 29. In the midst of physical 
danger and harm. In unseen and moral dangers. There are always 
subtle currents that may swerve us unknowingly from the right 
course. 

He will be near and help in the hard experience. Psalm 103 : 13 ; 
Deuteronomy 32 : 1 1 ; 33 : 27. 

There are times when each has sense of his own helplessness when 
he is undecided and perplexed, when in adversity and sorrow, even 
in joy and prosperity. The presence of the Heavenly Father helps 
as none other. 

He has a plan for each life. Matthew 10: 29-31. 

Could we think of God creating us in his own image for no other 
purpose than mere existence? 

"He who alone knows enough and cares enough to do it, has 
planned out every human life, desiring the noblest things for it, fit- 
ting it into the richest associations." — Speer, in "Christ and Life." 

Let us not think of God only as Creator, Law-giver, King, but 
as a loving Father, with all which that implies, as well. 

The leader should tell as vividly as possible the story of the 
Prodigal Son, laying special emphasis on the father's attitude toward 



LENTEN EVANGELISM 237 

the returned boy. Then close with prayer, ending with the Lord's 
Prayer in concert. 

Lesson II 
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit 

1. Jesus Christ Our Saviour. 

"The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." 
Matthew 18:11. 

When a coin is lost, its intrinsic value is not changed, but its 
worth and usefulness are temporarily unavailable. 

Sin is "missing the mark," it is failing to measure up to God's 
highest for us. Sin is that which is contrary to God's will. 

Jesus Christ came to save men who were lost in sin, to restore 
their value to the world and to his Kingdom. 

By his life, and teachings, and death, he revealed God and showed 
people how to come into right relationship with him. 

2. Jesus Christ Our Friend. 

"A friend is one who knows all about you and likes you just the 
same." 

A real friend understands and sympathizes with you. 

Christ is the ideal friend because he was on earth, lived among 
people, understands all that each of us experiences ; therefore he can 
give just the help we need. Hebrews 2: 17; 4: 15, 16. 

3. The Holy Spirit. 

Christ promised the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. John 14:26; 
15:26; 16:7. 

The Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ with us to-day, dwelling 
with us. 1 Corinthians 3 : 16. 

As people recognize this Spirit within them, they are strengthened 
and filled with power. 

The Holy Spirit lives in us even though we cannot see him or 
his power. 

Illustration : We can stop an electric motor with the hand, but the 
power is there ready to operate when the machine is unhindered. 

Similarly, we sometimes hold back the Holy Spirit, preventing 
him from making our lives real worth-while powers. 

Nothing is impossible for a young person with the Holy Spirit 
working with and through him. 

Lesson III 

What Is It to Be a Christian f 1/ 

Men were first called Christians at Antioch. Acts 11 : 26. 
1. A Christian Is a Follower. 



238 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

John 1 : 35-37. The two followed him up the road, taking the 
same direction in which he was going. 

Matthew 9:9. As Christians we make it the business of our 
lives to follow Christ, the Master of our lives, trying to be and do 
what he would have us be and do. 

Ephesians 5:1. "Followers" here means to imitate. 

Illustration : Learning to play a musical instrument requires prac- 
tice. The more we practice intelligently the more expert we become. 
The same is true of the Christian life. Always something higher to 
strive for. 

2. A Christian Is a Disciple. 

The word disciple means "learner." Mark 4 : 34. 

From these learners he chose the twelve who were to receive 
special instruction and training for their work. 

A Christian seeks to learn of Jesus and about him. How can 
we do this ? See John 8:31. 

By reading his recorded life. 

Through the Church and Church school. 

By studying his life as revealed in other lives. 

3. A Christian Is a Witness. Luke 24 : 48, Acts 1:8. 

A witness is one who gives evidence that a thing is so. The word 
suggests a person called to tell what he knows about the matter. 

Telling of something we are enthusiastic about is natural. 

Witnessing on the part of Christians is essential to the spread of 
the Kingdom. 

How can we witness ? Through the church, in daily life, and by 
service for others. 

How can one become a Christian? 

When can one become a witness? 



Lesson IV 
The Christian Church 

The first Christian Church consisted of twelve members. 

Just whom do we mean when we speak of "the Church"? 

1. Why Join the Church? 

It is Christ's Church. 

It provides a helpful environment. By joining we identify our- 
selves with a company of people with high purposes. 

Through it we may grow in Christian character. 

We often feel a sense of unworthiness, but the church is a school, 
and if we are willing to be taught by a great Teacher, Jesus Christ, 
then we have a rightful place in it. 

It is the organized effort of men and women to establish the 
Kingdom of Christ on earth. 



LENTEN EVANGELISM 239 

A soldier fighting alone may be well intentioned, but it is the 
united strength of a company that counts. 

The church is the most powerful influence for good the world has 
ever known. 

Consider what it has accomplished — the lives that have come from 
it, social betterment, etc. 

2. The Sacraments of the Church. ^ 

a. Baptism. 

Sprinkling has always been a sign of cleansing. 
Sprinkling with blood. Leviticus 4. 
SprinkHng with water. Ezekiel 36:25. 
Use of baptism by John the Baptist. Mark 1 : 5. 
For us to-day it has a two-fold meaning: A renouncing of the 
wrongs of the past. A pubhc dedication to a new life. ^ 

b. The Lord's Supper. 

As a memorial. Luke 22 : 14-22. 1 Corinthians 1 1 : 23-26. 

(Compare with the purpose of Bunker Hill Monument, and 
other memorial shafts and buildings.) 

For spiritual strength. 

Bread and wine taken into the body become a part of it through 
rebuilding tissues of the body and making life-imparting blood. 
Partaking of these elements symbolizes the taking of Christ into 
our life, bringing a new spirit within us and building up a strong 
character through his living presence. The observance of the Lord's 
Supper is a time of communion with him. 

All may participate, regardless of their particular church or 
denominational affiliation if they honestly love the Lord Jesus Christ 
and recognize him as their Master and seek to carry out his will in 
their lives. 



Lesson V 

^Bible Reading and Prayer 

The Bible is a whole library, comprising volumes written in 
various widely separated periods. They include: Books of law, 
history, poetry and songs, sermons, biography, and letters. The 
writers of these books were of all classes: fishermen, shepherds, 
physicians, business men, prophets, priests and kings. The Old 
Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament in 
Greek. Jesus was familiar with the Old Testament. He quotes 
from the law, the sermons, and the poetry. 

If possible, the leader of the class should trace quickly the story 
of the Bible — the early translations: John Wyclif; persecutions; 
invention of printing; William Tyndale; opposition of established 
church ; smuggling of Bibles to England from Germany ; kings and 



240 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

bishops sought to stamp out the Bible, but failed; the Authorized 
Version ; the American Revised Version. 

There are two ways to get acquainted with a person : 

L By writings. Acquaintance can be made by correspondence. 

The Bible may be thought of as God's letter to his children. If 
we would get better acquainted with him, let us read his Word. 

How shall we read it? 

Regularly. 

Systematically. All parts not of equal value to us at the same 
time. 

Read : Gospels again and again. 

The history books of Old Testament. 

Logical sections of a book at one time, rather than certain num- 
ber of chapters or verses. 

Endeavor to learn by whom, under what conditions and for what 
purpose the book you are reading was written. 

2. By personal contact, holding conversation with a person. 

Prayer is not dependent on formal phrases or special posture. 

Prayer is not alone asking for things. Rather it is natural "con- 
versation and intercourse with God." It is abiding with God, get- 
ting his viewpoint. 

Consider Jesus' habits of prayer. He constantly looked up from 
his daily occupation to talk with his Heavenly Father. We can do 
the same. 

"For Jesus' sake." John 14:13. If as Christians we are to 
grow in character and power we must read the Bible and pray. 

Lesson VI 

Forward Step or Decision Day 

Progress is always dependent on forward steps. If men had been 
content with Benjamin Franklin's discovery that lightning was 
electricity we would never have had electricity harnessed for our 
needs to-day. If Marconi had been satisfied to send currents 
through the air a few yards only, we would never have had wireless 
messages sent across the sea. 

If the two disciples had been content to see Jesus pass by up the 
road, without following after, they would never have known Jesus. 
Similarly it is natural to expect progress in the Christian life. 

1. Some of you are already members of the Christian Church. 

Joining the church is not like attaining a certain point and then 
relaxing because the goal is reached. It is a stepping out into the 
open door of larger service and opportunity. 

The church is occupying a constantly enlarging place in the com- 
munity. 



LENTEN EVANGELISM 241 

Some opportunities for service in the church are these : 

Assuming responsibiHties as called upon. 

Teaching in Sunday school. 

Ushering. 

Singing in choir. 

Pastor's helper. 

Using influence over other young people, etc., etc. 

2. Some of you are Christians, but not members of the Church. 
You may feel that you are honestly a "follower" of Jesus, but 

prefer to follow him privately. 

You will lose much if you stop here; you need the Church and 
the Church needs you. 

It may be suggested that you are not old enough, or not good 
enough to join the Church, etc., etc. But remember that the Church 
is not a "museum of models;" it is a school wherein we learn and 
seek to become better and train ourselves for greater service. 

To join the Church is to rally to the cause of Christ and to haul 
up our colors showing where we stand. 

3. Some of you have never made a decision to be a Christian. 

You were brought up to attend church and Sunday school, to be- 
lieve in God, and are trying to do what is right, but never definitely 
accepted Christ for yourselves, or openly announced your decision. 

The highest character and finest living come only when we take 
Christ as our Master and become followers of him. 

President McKinley once said : "There is only one kind of char- 
acter, and that is Christian character." 

To definitely make this decision is a great help in life. 

At the Lenten season, when we consider especially the sacrificial 
love of Jesus, we naturally want to do something for him. 

What will be your Forward Step this Easter ? 

At this point let the teachers distribute blank cards (3x5 in.) 
and pencils among the class. This should be planned beforehand so 
as to be carried out with the least possible time and confusion. 
Have each one put his name and address on the top of the card. 
Then urge each to write on the card underneath his name, just that 
which he (or she) wants his forward step to be. Make this part of 
the service very definite and meaningful. Give ample time to allow 
each to formulate and put in writing that which is in his heart. 
When this is done, request that the cards be turned face down while 
the teachers collect them. Follow this with a prayer of consecra- 
tion and the hymn, "O Master Workman of the race." 

These cards should be followed up during the week by teachers or 
pastors to actually realize the pledges made or forward steps taken, 
such as forms of service, joining the Church, etc. 

It may be found advisable to have a seventh lesson, taking up the 
development of the Christian Church, and the principles of the de- 



242 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

nomination under which the class is being held. The subject matter 
for this lesson would naturally depend on the material the leader 
has in hand. Denominational headquarters would doubtless be glad 
to furnish what is needed. — Arranged by Frederick L. Fay. 



I 



VII 
DECISION DAY 

An annual Decision Day Dy very general usage has been estab- 
lished for our Sunday-schools. It is usually held near the first of 
the year or in the month of March. In some churches more than 
one such day is held in the year. An objection raised against De- 
cision Day is that it endangers the continual force of the Spirit's 
call, "Behold, now is the accepted time ; and behold, now is the day 
of salvation." Such a special day must be guarded lest the children 
and young people be given the impression that God's call is an 
annual rather than an ever imperative invitation. But it will be the 
fault of parents, teachers and pastors if they ever get such an im- 
pression as that. Of course every day should be decision day if 
possible; nevertheless, there is unmistakable value in a definite day. 
The attention of the scholar is called to his or her duty and privi- 
lege by this anniversary. The attention of the teacher is also called 
to his or her obligation to see that every member of the class is 
definitely committed to a confession of Christ. 

There is something to work for and something to pray for on 
the part of both the teacher and the scholar. Without a Decision 
Day the temptation to postpone or put off definite effort is power- 
ful. With a Decision Day and a special object to work for, definite 
objects can be expected if sought with the divine blessing. 

Of all meetings or opportunities in the Church, or the world, the 
most inviting field for winning souls is the Sabbath-school. A 
larger number of unconverted souls attend the Bible school than any 
other church service. This is the general rule. As a rule the un- 
converted in the Sabbath-school are composed of boys and girls — 
young people. These are far likelier to be won to Christ than any 
other class. The fact is, there are many children in our classes who 
are simply undeveloped Christians. They have been born again, but 
have not as yet been thoroughly won. It is the heavenly task of the 
teacher to ascertain their precise relation to Christ, and if they are 
in him, to develop in them the Christian life planted by the Holy 
Spirit. 

The presence in the school, and in almost every class of numbers 
of youth who have found Christ as their Saviour; who have con- 
fessed Christ as their Lord, and are rejoicing in him, is a wonder- 
ful encouragement and help to the teachers in winning others. 

It often occurs that the teacher, earnest for the salvation of his 

243 



L 



244 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

scholars, finds that the blessed Spirit has gone before him. Some 
of his scholars have been so touched by him that they want to know 
what they must do to be saved. 

The hearts of all children are more tender, and are more respon- 
sive to Jesus' love than those of adults. The child will accept Christ 
with a faith more simple than the grown-up person. It is easier for 
the child to love than for an adult, and the child can more readily 
learn to love Jesus. They have not been hardened by sin or by 
rejection of Christ. 

Decision Day Is Flood- tide 

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 

Planting must be done in seed-time. Tending the field must be 
done in growing time. Harvesting must be done when the crop is 
ripe. We must make hay when the sun shines. We must grind our 
grist while the water is flowing by the mill. We must teach the 
child while he is a child. We must show love while the loved ones 
are ^till with us. We must prepare for the future while it is still to- 
day. — H. C. Trumbull, D.D. 

In the Lenten Season 

The great aim of personal work is to win souls into the kingdom 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To accompHsh this benefi- 
cent result there is nothing more desirable on the part of Christian 
workers than definiteness of method, and the observance of what is 
called "Decision Day" has proved to be an efficient aid in promoting 
the growth of the Kingdom. 

While the particular date upon which Decision Day shall be ob- 
served is a matter which has been left very much to the local 
churches, yet a large number have found it profitable to observe it 
in the season of Lent. 

Making Decision Day a Success 

The writer once spent a Sunday in a city two thousand miles 
from his home. On the day before he received an invitation to be 
present at a certain Bible-school. On reaching the school building 
he sought out the superintendent in order to ascertain what was ex- 
pected of him. He was informed that he was to conduct a Decision 
Day service. Then followed a dialogue : " A Decision Day service ! 



DECISION DAY 245 

Have you made any preparation for it?" "Yes, indeed." "What 
have you done?" "We have been praying for our pupils, we have 
been giving them special instruction, and we have talked about this 
day in many ways and in many places." "How long has this been 
going on?" "Five months ago we began to talk about it, and we 
have been planning for it ever since." "All right; I will conduct 
the service." 

It is not to be wondered at that a comparatively very large num- 
ber of boys and girls signified the fact that they had already, or 
that they would now, accept Christ as their Saviour. The pastor 
had made beforehand his plans for dealing with these children, and 
they were turned over to his care. There is no secret as to why 
that Decision Day was a success. — Rev. A. H. McKinney, D.D. 

The Waiting Harvest 

I received from a pastor a letter which stirred my heart to the 
depths. He writes : "It needs no arguments to convince the Church 
theoretically that early youth is the strategic opportunity for win- 
ning the life for Christ and his kingdom — but plainly enough, some- 
thing is needed to arouse the Church to the point where she will 
make a practical application of the conviction to the demands of 
the hour of the hundreds of thousands of children and youth stand- 
ing on the very threshold of the kingdom, waiting to be led through 
the open door." The pastor, who is himself greatly blessed in 
bringing every year many scores of young people to Christ, and into 
his church, adds this question, which comes straight to the soul: 
"Why not inaugurate a movement at once which shall sweep through 
the Church — from ocean to ocean — sure, if once undertaken, to 
lead into the fold of Christ, the Church fold, thousands of those 
waiting, hungry, timid, loving ^lambs' whom Jesus bids us 'feed'?" 
Brethren in Christ, I pass this question on to you. Will you, who 
only can, inaugurate this movement? Will you rally your forces, 
outline your plan, and backed up by your officers and all the teach- 
ers, begin at once to gather the harvest white and only waiting to 
be gathered? 

An Earnest Pastor 

In one school in Pennsylvania the pastor himself had secured the 
names of seventy-five of the scholars who had not accepted Christ, 
and with all the teachers on their knees he read over these names 
one by one until he could read no more, because of the sobs of those 
who filled the room, and he told me when the results were tabulated 
that he did not believe there was one of the seventy-five that had 
not taken a stand for Christ. — Rev. J. W. Chapman, D.D. 



246 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

The Most Available Souls 

Put emphasis on the Decision Day in the Sunday School. We 
do not believe that the day of revivals has passed or ever will pass ; 
but we believe that the key of the situation lies in the Sunday School. 
Here is a field not far away, but at home ; not inaccessible, but ready 
at hand; not with few isolated souls, but with great masses of 
people; a field not slow in growth, but already white unto the 
harvest. It contains the material for evangelistic work — the people 
who are near the kingdom, yet not within its walls. What would 
the pastor who expects to open a series of revival meetings give if 
he could be sure of seeing on the opening night one hundred people 
before him who are not church members? Yet that is what the 
pastor might perhaps have seen in his own Sunday School on Sun- 
day afternoon or morning. Why not begin this work of soul-win- 
ning right there where are the souls to be won ? The Sunday School 
now supplies the church with about 85 per cent of its members, and 
might give even more if it were worked, first as an aggressive 
agency to bring people to its sessions, and then as an evangelistic 
agency to bring them to Christ. 

Direct and Personal 

It would not seetn to be an impossible goal to make sure that 
every pupil in your Sunday School of the teen age got a direct per- 
sonal invitation to accept Christ. In one of the large cantonments 
of soldiers the Young Men's Christian Association staff of thirty 
or forty secretaries, with the help of volunteer workers from the 
adjacent city churches, questioned every one of the forty thousand 
or fifty thousand soldiers as to his spiritual condition. Certainly 
any Sunday-school with four hundred pupils and a staff, say, of 
fifty workers ought to be able to do as much. 

Bible Decision Days 

Think of them! There was Abraham called to decide whether 
he would leave home, country, friends, and go out not knowing 
whither — all he knew was that the Lord called on him to decide 
whether or not he would obey. Do you suppose he dawdled over 
that decision, and said, "I would like to do this thing which I sup- 
pose is right, but I don't understand much about it, and I don't 
know the way, and I don't know whether I shall hold out till I get 
to that unknown home which the Lord says he has prepared for 
me"? 

Then look at that great Decision Day out in the Wilderness be- 
fore rugged Mount Sinai. Can you not see that great camp of 



DECISION DAY 247 

hundreds of thousands of people listening to the voice of Moses? 
The first step had been to make them ashamed of their sin. Then 
Moses called for instant decision. Hear his ringing voice, "Who is 
on tlie Lord's side? Let him come to me !" See them '*go forward" 
to the side of the leader. 

And now they are in the promised land, in the lovely valley of 
Shechem, with the grim walls of rock rising on either side, mounts 
of cursing and of blessing. Which should it be? It was for them 
to choose. Joshua did not say, "Go home and think over this mat- 
ter." Nor, "Have a few fast days and weep and wail." Nor, 
"Come week after week till I can fully instruct you in what this 
thing means." How the voice of the soldier Captain accustomed to 
giving orders rang and was echoed back from the rocks: "Choose 
ye — when ? This day. What ? Whom ye will serve." A national 
Decision Day ! Think of that. Pray for that. 

Again, on Mount Carmel, hear Elijah cry out, "How long halt ye 
undecided? Choose now between Baal, and the Lord, and follow 
one or the other." 

I cannot stop to even hint at the many New Testament Decision 
Days. Again and again when the Christ called "Follow me" quick 
decision was made. And there was a certain Decision Day at Naza- 
reth, when the decision was on the wrong side. That was Decision 
Day at Jericho when Bartimeus and Zaccheus decided for Christ. 
What a good thing, for he was passing by then but never came that 
way again. Yes, there are special times when Jesus of Nazareth is 
passing by. — M. G. K. 



Sowing and Never Reaping 

If a farmer were to occupy all his time in sowing the seed and 
make no provision for the gathering of a harvest which he would 
have a right to expect, we should think him bereft of all reason. 
There are certain laws governing the sowing of seed, the watching 
for growth and development and the reaping of the harvest. It is 
likewise true that there are certain well defined laws concerning the 
use of God's Word in teaching and preaching. It is the good seed 
indeed, and the heart of a child has always been found to be particu- 
larly good ground upon which it may fall. If, therefore, there are 
few conversions and the harvest in the Sunday School is not gath- 
ered, the responsibility for failure cannot be with the Lord of the 
harvest, but must be with those who are supposed to be the laborers 
in his field. I can find no reason in God's Word why there should 
not be a constant ingathering of the children and young people into 
the kingdom of Heaven, why there may not be frequent harvest sea- 
sons and oft repeated decision days. — Rev. J. W. Chapman, D.D. 



248 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

Two Cautions 

A Decision Day, preceded by preparation and prayer, and ob- 
served in a quiet, reverent spirit, may be very helpful in bringing 
pupils who have already given their hearts to Christ, to a public ac- 
knowledgment. Two cautions should be observed: L Do not rely 
on Decision Day to the exclusion of other efforts. 2. Do not make 
the mistake of feeling that Decision Day is the culmination and end 
of evangelistic work in the school. It should rather be regarded as 
a day of enlistment in the service of Christ, to be followed by care- 
ful instruction and training. 

How Decision Day May Be a Failure 

One Sunday noon a superintendent came from the church service 
into the Sunday-school with his Bible under his arm and a new- 
formed resolution in his heart. Going over to the secretary of the 
school, a conversation which is substantially as follows took place: 
"I think it would be a good thing to observe Decision Day this 
afternoon. What do you think?" *'I think it's a good idea." "Let 
us have a Decision Day." "All right !" 

Just after the school was called to order the good man announced 
that he had spoken to the secretary and that it had been decided to 
hold Decision Day services. 

In accordance with this announcement, there was especial prayer 
offered, and the time for the study of the lesson was shortened, and 
toward the close of the session an appeal was made to the non- 
Christian members of the school in which they were urged to accept 
Christ as their Saviour. 

A few responded by signifying their acceptance of Christ, but the 
majority of those present were either bored or amused. A short 
time afterward it was plainly evident that some of those who had 
decided for Christ had no adequate conception of what they had 
done.— -Rev. A. H. McKinney, D.D. 

The Pastor's Privilege 

"No pastor can conduct the Decision Day service unless he has 
been in the school in sympathy with the teachers and scholars. No 
one can conduct it so effectively as he if the results are to be con- 
served. No one is so competent to do it. If he in this way 
reaches the children, he will be much more able to reach the 
parents." 

The Natural Time for Decision 

Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid 



DECISION DAY 249 

them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.*' The child should 
be led to Christ because it is God's will that the child be saved. 

It is comparatively easy to lead the child to Christ. Vast sums 
of money, much time, and great labor are expended in rescue mis- 
sion work. If that money, time, and labor were put into definite 
efforts to lead the boy and girl to Christ, the results would be far 
greater and there would not be such great necessity for rescue work. 

Besides this, when a child is won for Jesus the future life with its 
possibilities belongs to him. It has been demonstrated over and over 
again that a large majority of active Christian workers to-day con- 
fessed Christ before they were sixteen years old. Decisions for 
Christ are natural in the adolescent period. Few who pass it with- 
out making the great decision enter the service of Christ. Every 
encouragement should be given to yield the heart to Christ at this 
time. 

Planning for Decision Day 

In planning for carrying out a successful Decision Day, certain 
points must be carefully considered. Everything, both in planning 
and in execution, should be done in absolute dependence on the 
Holy Spirit. To know the mind of God, and to be in such an atti- 
tude that the Holy Spirit can use the workers, there must be much 
prayer. 

The time for the Decision Day exercises should be announced well 
in advance. The pastor, the Sunday-school officers, and teachers, 
the parents and friends of the pupils should be asked to co-operate 
both in prayer and in work. Two appeals may well be made to 
every pupil — one privately by the teacher to the individual, and the 
other by the pastor or superintendent to the school collectively. 

Those whose names 'have been taken as having expressed their 
desire or made their decision to follow Christ, should be followed 
up by personal effort on the part of those best fitted to help them. 
Wherever possible, a Pastor's Probationers' or Instruction Class 
should be formed. 

It is best to deal with the pupils individually and in private. Pa- 
tience, perseverance, and constant vigilance must be exercised. Hap- 
hazard or intermittent efforts on the part of the teachers are re- 
sponsible for much of the poor Christian discipleship which is so 
greatly lamented. 

Little Girrs Prayers 

Five sailors went to hear Rev. Dr. A. C. Dixon preach. A little girl 
nine years of age noticed them, and began to pray earnestly that, if 
they were not Christians, they might be converted that night. When 
an invitation was given, one went forward ; then one went out. She 



250 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

prayed that he might be brought back, and in a few minutes he re- 
turned ; soon a second went forward ; but three remained in their 
seats. Several men spoke to them, but they refused invitations. At 
last the eager little girl herself rose, went to them, and pleaded that 
they would accept the Saviour. She had the joy of seeing them all 
rise, go forward, and make a bold confession of Christ. This inci- 
dent occurred at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Cal., Sunday 
night, October 30, 1921. It is vouched for by Miss A. S. Wright, 
Hollywood, Cal. 

Too "Choicy" in Salvation 

Some people are too "choicy" in the matter or way of salvation. 
Naaman, in the old time, did not like the method of getting healed. 
He was almost as foolish as a certain woman who complained 
about the life preservers to the captain of the boat. "J^st look at 
them," she said. "What's the matter with them?" asked the cap- 
tain. "Matter with them ?" echoed the woman. "Don't you see that 
they art dirty? If a woman with a nice summer dress on had to 
put one of those things over it, it would never be fit to wear again !" 
— Christian Herald. 

The Value of Decision Day 

Christians are all agreed that young people ought to come to 
Christ. It is not difficult to tell why, it is not so easy to tell how. 

The child without Christian nurture should be led to know and 
love God in Christ Jesus. It should be remembered that while 
some boys and girls have a marked experience of conversion, many 
come to be Christians as naturally as night turns into day. No one 
should feel that he must duplicate the experience of another. 

It is much to be regretted that so many parents feel the children 
should receive all their spiritual training in the Sunday-school. 
Every boy would like to make his father his ideal, but too few 
fathers covet that place enough to pay the price for it. 

The Sunday-schools, in order to meet the great responsibility of 
winning and training these young people, have adopted various 
methods. Some schools hold monthly evangelistic services; others 
have special evangelistic meetings for the children at a time other 
than during the Sunday-school services. Among the many institu- 
tions connected with the Sunday-school none seem destined to re- 
sult in more spiritual good than that which is popularly known as 
Decision Day. 

Many objections are raised by parents to the observance of De- 
cision Day. Some parents take the attitude that they do not want 
their children unduly influenced in regard to religious matters; they 



DECISION DAY 251 

wish them to grow up unbiased and to choose intelligently when they 
are old enough to do so for themselves. But if children are not in- 
fluenced for Christ, they are being most strongly and persistently 
influenced against him. No child can grow up unbiased; if not 
turned to Christ, he will be turned away from him. Other parents 
feel their children are too young to become Christians. Others say 
their children already are Christians. That may be so; then the 
effort put forth on Decision Day should be to get them publicly to 
take a stand for Christ. This will affect the child all through life 
and will also encourage others. 

Decision Day should mean an especial effort put forth, after 
much prayer and preparation, to have every unconverted member 
of the Sunday-school face the question of deciding for Christ, and 
to urge every Christian member of the Sunday-school, who had not 
already done so, to confess Christ. We observe Decision Day in 
order to bring to fruitage the teaching of parents, pastors and Bible- 
school workers. — R. 

Some Real Decisions for Christ 

The boys and girls enter the intermediate department in a certain 
school at eight or nine years, and remain three years. In giving the 
summing up of the lesson, which was an appropriate one, the su- 
perintendent asked that each one present write his decision on a bit 
of paper, — a little personal note out of his heart to the superin- 
tendent. Every one in the room responded. Here are some of the 
expressions : 

"I do not think I have been acting just like a Christian, but I will 
try." 

"I want to be a Christian all my Hfe. I wiU try to do as God 
wishes me to." From a girl. 

"I intend to be a servant of God, my remaining days," says a boy 
who united with the church the next Sunday. 

*T intend to be a Christian, but I do not know whether I will join 
the church. I will decide that after a while," wrote a boy who de- 
cided it the next Sunday. 

*T choose this day to serve Christ, and to do his will all my life," 
— ^by a fine lad who came into the church at once. 

"I want to become a Christian, and intend to pray to God to help 
me serve and obey him," — a sweet, motherless girl. 

*T am not old enough to unite with the church, but I want to be a 
Christian first." 

An honest boy writes : "I do not think I have been as good as I 
could have been, but I will promise with all my heart to be true to 
the Lord and serve His name, for it is my one great wish to De a 
Christian." 



252 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

A sincere girl says : "I would love to be a Christian, but I know 
I am not good enough, but I will try to be, if God will help me." 

A boy, who has known what temptation is, says, "I am a Chris- 
tian, and always will be one, whether in church or at play. I am 
going to have God for my Father always/' 

"I want to be a Christian, but I cannot join the church because I 
am not large enough." 

Nothing was said to these boys and girls about *' joining church," 
though that idea seems to have entered into many minds. It is a 
serious confusion of ideas for our children to feel that joining the 
church is the end of attainments, instead of its beginning, after the 
decision for Christ has been fully made. These answers are given 
for what they may teach others who have the care of children. — L. 

The Great Day 

The Sabbath morning dawns, ushered in by the prayers and af- 
fectionate anticipations of the entire people. Surely no pastor will 
fail to make a most profound impression during the morning serv- 
ice ! The conduct of the school that day should be under the direc- 
tion of the pastor and superintendent. "A stranger intermeddleth 
not with their joy." And, however proper it may be to invite a 
neighboring pastor or other Christian worker to be present and as- 
sist, the shepherd of the flock must gather, tend and feed the sheep 
and the lambs. 

Of course the hymns will be among the most tender and exalted. 
It may be well to lay aside the lesson of the day and to devote the 
entire time to a very simple, unmistakable setting forth of Christ 
Jesus as the Saviour, and the way of coming to him. 

If thought wise, at the close of this address, which should not 
be over twelve minutes in length, the classes may be turned over to 
the teachers with a request that the one subject of conversation and 
instruction in the class shall be the personal relation of each scholar 
to the Lord Jesus. 

Teachers might well be furnished with Decision cards. Full op- 
portunity should be given to the scholars deliberately to sign these 
cards. And, while the teacher is affectionately interested, he should 
not use undue pressure to obtain hurried signatures. Indeed, if any 
of the scholars desire to take the cards home and to consider the 
matter more fully, or to consult their fathers and mothers before 
signing, they should be encouraged to do so. 

Teacher's Pledge of Prayer and Personal Work 

God helping me, I will earnestly pray each day, by name, for the 
conversion of each member of my Sunday-school class; and will 



DECISION DAY 253 

endeavor to so illustrate in my life the gospel of Christ which I 
teach, and to so come in personal contact with my scholars outside 
the Sunday-school, as to help answer my own prayers, and secure 
the conversion of every member of my class. 



Decision Day a Good Method 

The old adage about burning the candle at both ends contains a 
lot of good advice, and yet at the same time, as Henry Van Dyke 
quaintly quotes, "It is better to burn the candle at both ends, and 
in the middle too, than to put it away in a closet and let the mice 
eat it." We have need to remember that "He that saveth his life 
shall lose it." We are saved to serve, and the time to let our light 
shine is in the beginning, so that God may have the full benefit of 
it. So many selfishly prefer to shine for the world all the best part 
of their lives, and when life is nearly over and they are of little 
use they are willing to give the last flickering rays to the One who 
has suffered and died for them. Let us make it our business to get 
decisions for Christ from our young people while they are young. 
The observance of Decision Day is one good method. 

Sample Decision Day Cards 

The use of some sort of card on Decision Day is almost universal. 
The following are samples of some that have been found suitable. 

There is a passage in Isaiah which seems to give Scriptural war- 
rant for the use of Decision cards. It is found in Isaiah 44 : 3-5 : 
"I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine 
offspring, and they shall spring up as among the grass, and as wil- 
lows by the water courses. One shall say I am the Lord's ; and an- 
other shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall 
subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the 
name of Israel." Indeed, this entire passage seems to be Jehovah's 
word of encouragement to our Sabbath-school workers during 
Decision Days. 

Rev. Dr. John Henry Jowett uses these two decision cards. 

My Sacred Decision (1) 

Relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting only in his grace 
and love, I resolve to offer my life to him as his sacred possession, 
in humble prayer and faith that he will lift me out of every form 
of evil bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

Name 

Address , 



254 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

Joining the Church (2) 

Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusting him as my 
Saviour, I desire to confess his name before men in seeking the 
fellowship of his church; and I therefore humbly resolve to have 
my name enrolled in the communion of the visible church, and be- 
come a member of "the household of faith." 

Name 

Address ., , 

Decision Day Card (3) 

Turning from all my sins and trusting in the Lord Jesus as my 
personal Saviour, I now decide henceforth to lead a Christian life. 
With God's help, I will. 

Name ., 

Address 

Decision Day Card (4) 

I know that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and has asked me to 
accept him as my loving Saviour. I know that he wishes all who 
love and accept him to do this publicly before others, and so, looking 
to him for strength, I have joined with others to-day in deciding 
to accept him as my Saviour. 

Name ,. 

Address 

Decision Day Card (5) 

I do accept Christ as my personal Saviour and will confess him. 

Name ... , 

Address . .: i , 

Church . ., 

Decision Day Card (6) 

I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Lord, and I trust in him as my 
Saviour. From this day, by God's help, I will follow him. 

Name ....,..., ,. 

Address , , 

A Good Card to Use (7) 

Frank Whitehall Smith, a Junior in Princeton College, was a son 
of Hannah Whitehall Smith. He was drowned at Princeton in his 
Junior year. After his death a card was found among his papers, 
upon which was printed the following: 



DECISION DAY 255 

I take God to be my Father. 
I take Jesus Christ to be my Saviour, 
I take the Holy Spirit to be my Guide. 
I take the Bible to be the rule of my life. 
I take Christian people to be my associates. 
I take Christian work to be my duty. 

I likewise dedicate myself to the Lord, and this I do freely, de- 
liberately, sincerely and forever. 

Name 

Address , 

Church Preference . . ,1 

Are you a church member here? Elsewhere? 

This card will be returned to you after it is recorded. 

Decision Day Card (8) 

The following decision card was used by the late Mr. Charles M. 
Alexander in his army camp work. 

My Decision 

Believing that the Lord Jesus Christ died for me : — 

I now accept him as my Saviour, 

I ask him to blot out all my sins; 

I will acknowledge him before others. 

And trust him day by day. 

If you make the above decision, put your own name (instead of 
"whosoever" in John 3: 16), and sign it on the blank line below, 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 

that ,. 

who believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Acceptance Card (9) 

I do accept Christ as my personal Saviour and will confess him. 

Name 

Address . . . ., 

Church 

Decision Day Card (10) 

I have an Honest Desire henceforth to live a Christian life. 
I am willing to follow any Light God will give me. 
I ask the people of God to pray for me. 

Name 

Address 

Church or Pastor Preferred 



256 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

'Decision Day Card (11) 

"Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve" 
I am not now a member of the Church. I accept Christ as my 
personal Saviour and hereby confess him. 

Name 

Address . ., .j 



My Covenant With God (12) * 

I have this day accepted and confessed Christ as my Saviour, 
and committed the direction of my whole life to him. As he gives 
me strength I will strive from day to day to be a true and faithful 
Christian. 

Signed ......... .i 

Date . ., Place 

Give this part of the card to your pastor, superintendent, teacher, 
or a member of the session. 

Decision Day Card (13) 
My Covenant with God 

Believing the Gospel I turn from every known sin to Christ and 
look to him for forgiveness and life. I do now receive and confess 
Christ as my Saviour, (John 1:12, Matt. 10:32, Rom. 10:9, 10) 
and, trusting that he will keep me, I commit the direction of my 
whole Hfe to him, (Heb. 7:25; Jude 24). 

Signed . ., ; 

Date , Place 

God's Command: Repent and believe the Gospel. Mark 1 : 15. 

The Gospel: Christ died for our sins and rose again. 1 Cor. 
15:1-4. 

God's Promise: As many as received him to them gave he the 
right to become children of God. John 1 : 12. 

^A Double Card (14) 

I Am Not a Christian 

I would like to become a Christian. I am willing this day to 
confess and forsake my sins and begin the Christian life. 

Name 

Address 

Class , 



DECISION DAY 257 

I Am a Christian but Not a Church Member 

I have been trying to Hve a Christian Hfe. I feel the need of 
uniting with the church. Consider me an applicant for church 
membership. 

Name .,. 

Address i. . , . . ., 

Class 

Calling Classes on Decision Day 

If, as each class is called, the Christian and those now ready- 
to confess Christ should rise together, and if class after class should 
thus rise and remain standing, and if at the beginning and close 
of the roll call a loving invitation should be given for instant de- 
cisions, to be shown by simply standing with the rest, many would 
be swept, by the current of feeling and action, over their doubts 
and difficulties, which once surmounted, would never trouble them 
again. Only, one caution; let nothing be done or said that would 
fix a soul in denial, and place it definitely in opposition to Christ. 
This is Decision Day, and they have not decided yet; that is all. 
They must think it over. They must talk it over with the teachers. 
They must pray about it. They must never call it a closed ques- 
tion till the decision is made. And they must remember that to- 
morrow may be too late. 

After Decision Day — ^What? 

Christian nurture, of course, of the most painstaking and prac- 
tical kind. But how shall this be secured? Permit a suggestion 
or two spoken not in theory, but out of personal experience. 

A Catechetical or Communion Class — Call it by any name that 
seems wisest is my first suggestion. Try to get every child who 
decided for Christ to join this class, otherwise the start is likely 
to prove only a nominal or negative one. To this end, I would 
advise that two such classes be formed — one meeting in the after- 
noon to accommodate the younger children, another in the evening 
for those engaged during the day with work or study. The Pastor 
would do well to take this class himself, and if he has no unoccupied 
time, he will find he has many appointments or less importance that 
he would be justified in cancelling to keep this one. He should 
go over with the children all the essential truths of the Gospel, 
starting, of course, with the fact and nature of sin, and then turn- 
ing to God's plan of saving men from sin. Such questions as. What 
is it to be a Christian ? How may I know I am a Christian ? How 
may I maintain a Christian life? Why should I join the Church? 



258 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

How may I fit myself for Church membership? and others of like 
bearing, will naturally all be answered with more or less fullness in 
the course of the instruction. 

The children should not be kept more than a half hour, or pos- 
sibly, in exceptional cases, three-quarters of an hour; and a few 
verses read responsively, or repeating in concert a familiar passage 
like the Twenty-third Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, and a little sing- 
ing, will help to make the class more attractive and interesting to 
the children. 

The Pastor, in beginning this work, will need to set himself to 
be simple, illustrative, patient, true to his own experience, gentle, 
and, above all else, to keep himself from turning school-master. 
The class must be put on a high spiritual level, or it will be sure 
to fail of wholesome results. 

My second suggestion would be to organize these young recruits 
at once for service. Spiritual exercise, we must not forget, is 
with children no less than older people one of the first conditions 
of spiritual growth. To set them to work will require ingenuity 
and careful study, but the Pastor who is at all resourceful will 
have little difficulty here. If there is not already in existence a 
Junior Christian Endeavor Society, one should be organized forth- 
with, and the children induced to join it. 

My third suggestion: Let the minister go over his membership 
with care and, selecting the most competent people among them, 
appoint for each child a spiritual guardian, who shall be asked 
to make the nurture of that child's religious life his special study 
and attention. He should see that the child has good literature to 
read, encourage his regular attendance at church, occasionally visit 
him, or invite the child to his own home, and, by these and various 
other means, seek to deepen and mature the Christian life of this 
spiritual ward. — ^John Balcom Shaw, D.D. 

Organize a Communion Class 

At the close of the tender and joyous Decision Day service, all 
those who have signed cards, and others too, should be gathered 
by the help of their teachers into a meeting for the creation of a 
Communion Class. The faithful pastor will desire immediately 
to see those who have taken their first step in confessing the Lord 
Jesus, and to give them his cheering words. He will desire to 
form them into his own special class. He will have the assistance 
of the superintendent and the other workers. The name and ad- 
dress of each member of the class will be recorded. They will 
be given some specific words of cheer and guidance, and announce- 
ment will be made of the regular meetings of this class and of 
the general outline of the matters to be considered. Here the 



DECISION DAY 259 

pastor will find his best coign of vantage. Here he can meet the 
young inquirers and those who have decided for Christ, and, instead 
of seeing them hurried without inteUigent preparation for admission 
into the Church, he can give them expHcit words of instruction 
and guidance concerning the vital matters of sin and salvation, the 
need of a Saviour; the work of the Holy Spirit in our behalf; the 
true nature of repentance and faith; what is involved in an open 
confession of Christ; and preparation for the Holy Communion; 
the duties of church members ; prayer and the study of God's word ; 
and subjects of like importance, so that when his lambs are received 
into the fold he may feel that they have come prepared. 

The unspeakable advantage of such classes — call them com- 
munion, catechetical, pastor^s preparatory, or by whatever name — 
has been demonstrated by the experience of all Christian ministers. 

The Pastor's Place in Results 

The conservation of the results of Decision Day will depend very 
largely upon the pastor, who should at once take steps to carry 
out the plans that he has long ago made for helping the various 
individuals to carry out the decisions they have made. For ex- 
ample, the young converts should be put into classes for especial 
teaching; those who confessed Christ should be put into a com- 
municants' class for instruction, with a view to church member- 
ship, and those who decided to engage in definite service should be 
directed and encouraged in that service. 

Our Children Called 

The history of the church proves that many of those who have 
been the real pillars in the house of God came to an acceptance 
of Christ before the age of twelve years. So, whatever may be 
our individual opinion concerning the conversion of children, God 
said: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." — Rev. J. Wilbur 
Chapman, D.D. 

A Teacher's Prayer 

My Lord, I do not ask to stand 
As king or prince of high degree; 

I only pray that hand in hand 
A child and I may come to Thee. 

To teach a tender voice to pray. 
Two childish eyes Thy face to see, 

Two feet to guide in Thy straight way — 
This fervently I ask of Thee. 



26o THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

Oh, grant Thy patience to impart, 
Thy holy law, Thy words of truth. 

Give, Lord, ihy grace, that my whole heart 
May overflow with love for youth. 

As step by step we tread the way. 
Trusting, and confident, and free — 

A child and I shall, day by day, 

Find sweet companionship with Thee. 

— Richardson Bradley. 



The First Thing 

Imprimis, begin now. The first decisions of decision day must 
be made by the teachers. Hold a meeting, teachers and officers 
together. Let each teacher tell how many scholars in his class are 
yet outside the church. By the time this list is completed you 
will have formed a sufficient argument for Decision Day. You 
will decide to observe it. — ^A. R. Wells. 



Two Methods 

The United States Government has two methods of saving human 
life. The Life Saving Station and the Light House. In the Life 
Saving Station there is little work to do in time of calm or even 
in time of storm, until the boat has been buffeted and driven upon 
the shoals or beaten upon the rocks. Then, when all are terror- 
stricken and life is immediately imperiled, the life-boats are sent 
out and strenuous efforts made against great odds to save the pas- 
sengers. In the Light House, day by day, the lenses are polished, 
the lamps filled, the wicks trimmed and when twilight begins to 
gather the light shines out across the waters, either in time of quiet 
or time of storm, to warn the passing boat from places of danger 
and guide it into an harbor of safety. While those who labor 
in the Life Saving Station deserve more credit than we can ex- 
press, yet those who work in the Light House certainly succeed 
in saving many more lives. 

The church of Jesus Christ has two methods of saving souls. 
One method is to wait until much of the earthly life is passed, until 
the soul, beaten by the storms of sin, is driven upon the shoals of 
despair and cries, "What shall I do to be saved?" Then the 
brave and devoted Christian men and women come to their assist- 
ance and lead them from darkness into light. The other is the 
Sunday School method of leading a soul into the knowledge of 
Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men early in life. It has been aptly 
said that he who leads a child to Christ not only * 'saves a soul 



DECISION DAY 261 

from death, but a soul plus a life." So long as there are men and 
women who have been led astray into lives of sin, there will be 
need of the strenuous efforts which are always necessary to lead 
them to Christ, but how much better it would be if more atten- 
tion were given to that department of church work which is labor- 
ing earnestly to save our children. Let us not pay less attention 
to the saving of men and women, but let us give more attention to 
the saving of the child. 

To this end there should be several Decision Days during the year. 
The young should be led to a definite decision for Christ. 

To the child who has been taught from infancy to love God 
as his Father and Jesus Christ as his Saviour and to whom the 
Spirit life may have been imparted, the decision may be but a 
ratification of the teaching which he has received from his parents 
or his Sunday School teacher, or it may be but the ratification by 
the will of that which the heart has already chosen. To the child 
which has not been brought early to a knowledge of Jesus, the 
decision will be of a different nature and the experience more 
radical. But in both cases the need of decision is absolutely 
essential. 

Divine Love 

"Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, 

that one of these little ones should perish." Matt. 18 : 14. 

1. The Father's will. "It is not the will of your Father." 

2. The Saviour's love. He yearns for the little ones' safety, 

3. The Holy Spirit's word. He has written it. 

4. The source of joy. The Salvation of the children. 

5. The light of hope. Not one shall perish. 

Boys of the Bible 

I. The cheerful boy. Isaac, Gen, 21 : 5. Isaac means "laugh- 
ing." A joy to his parents. V. 6. A willing, obedient disposition 
makes cheerfulness. 

II. The ambitious boy. Joseph, Gen. Z7 '. 5-8. Ambition when it 
is good is consistent with innocence and purity. 

III. The devout boy. Samuel, 1 Sam. 2 : 18. The boy who 
loves God's house and hears God's voice, and who serves God as 
best he can. 

IV. The patriotic boy. David, 1 Sam. 17:40. Who defends his 
father's flock and his country at the risk of his life. 

V. The heroic boy. Daniel, Dan. 1 : 8. Brave enough to say No 
in a king's palace. Learn to say No and it will prove to be of 
more use to you than to read Latin. 



262 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

Use of a Boy 

John 6:9 

How was the boy in the multitude ? He was desirous of hearing 
Christ speak. Boys always found in the crowd ; always to the front. 
We may learn — 

1. The interest a boy can have in Jesus. 

2. The use Jesus can make of a boy. 

3. Always best to keep in good company, for being blessed, and 
becoming a blessing to others. 

Little Ships 

"And there were also with him other little ships." Mark 4 : 36. 
Here we have little pictures, little treasures, little traders, and 
little pilgrims. 

1. Little ships were not forgotten. Hope for all. 

2. Little ships' need in the storm. A picture for all. 

3. Little ships in touch with Jesus. The anchor for all. 

4. Little ships enjoying the calm. A blessing for all. 

5. Little ships in active service. A lesson for all. 

Why a Boy Should Be a Christian 

1. Reason one. You need the help of Christ. You are in the 
world, and you must pass through it. You will have questions 
to settle which you will not quite know how to decide if you are 
left alone to yourself. You will be tempted to do wrong. You 
will have more or less trouble, and no one will help you in all these 
things so well as Jesus Christ. 

Besides this, you have a character to form. Life is not all for 
fun, even for boys. Jesiis is the only One who ever lived a perfect 
life. He is, therefore, the best teacher you can have. But more 
than that, he will come into your heart and live with you if you 
will let him, for he says : "Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; 
if any man (or boy) hear my voice, and open the door, I will come 
in to him." 

You know how it is when you are with a very good man. You 
come to think as he thinks, and do as he does, and it is easy 
to be good in his presence. Much more will you find it easy to 
be good if you will let Christ come into your heart and direct your 
Hfe. 

Then, too, Jesus is the only one who can forgive sin, and, my 
dear boy, you are a sinner, for the Bible says so, and you know it. 
Do you not therefore need a Saviour? 

2. Reason two. Jesus needs your help. He has a place for you 



DECISION DAY 263 

in his kingdom, and a work for you to do. He needs you in your 
school and on the playground to show how brave and manly and 
true a Christian boy can be. He needs you in your home to brighten 
it by a happy life, as he brightened his home when a boy. He 
needs you everywhere to live for him and talk for him and to win 
other boys to himself, for God wants the boys. 

And what a grand thing it is that Jesus does need you. You 
would be sorry to think that he had no use for you, and that 
the world would go along just as well without you. You need 
not think so, for there is plenty of work that will not be done 
unless you do it. Respond to his call. Come up to his help, as a 
good soldier of Jesus Christ. 

3. Reason three. His requirements are reasonable. All that he 
asks of you is to do right. He does not expect you to be a Chris- 
tian man, but a Christian boy, with all a boy's love of fun and frolic. 
He expects you to run and jum^ and shout as loud as ever, but 
never to forget that you are one of Christ's boys. 

4. Reason four. As we think about the future the outlook is 
very bright for a Christian boy. The same Jesus whom he has 
loved and served in life will be with him in the hour of death, and 
will usher him into the gates of the Eternal City. Eternity is a 
long time, my boy, an awfully long time if spent apart from Jesus, 
but a blessed long time if spent in his company. ^ 

5. Reason five. You ought to be a Christian, and you know it. 
Christ died for you. He loves you and he longs for your love, 
and it is a burning shame for you not to love him and try to please 
him. Will you not begin to-day, my boy, by asking him to forgive 
your sins and enroll you as one of his followers? The manliest 
thing a boy can do is to stand up for Jesus. 

When President Garfield was a boy at Williams College, he 
climbed Mount Greylock one day with a lot of his companions. 
Their plan was to spend the night on the mountain. Seated around 
the camp fire they sang college songs and told stories all the 
evening. At length young Garfield took a Testament out of his 
pocket and said : "Boys, it is my custom to read a chapter in the 
Bible and have a prayer before going to bed. Shall we have it 
all together?" And they did. That is the kind of boy that you 
anc T admire; one who serves the Lord and isn't afraid to say so. 
That is the kind of boy I hope you will be; a boy who can say 
from his heart: — 

"I will go where you want me to go, dear Lord, 

Over mountain or valley or sea; 
I will say what you want me to say, dear Lord, 

I will be what you want me to be." 

— Author Unknown. 



VIII 

PASTORAL EVANGELISM 

If the minister of a church has a soul-hunger for a revival in 
that church, even though it seems impossible, let him praise God 
for his hunger and claim his Lord's promises. In the power of 
the prayers of a little group — though there are only two or three — 
who will join^him in praying through, let him preach the truths that 
point straight to the revival of the individual and the church and 
the community as the only hope of escape from the bondage of 
Satan. 

Having a Revival 

A revival is the result of one or more persons' letting the Lord 
Jesus Christ be not only their Saviour but their supreme Lord 
and Master; faithfully studying the Word of God to know his 
will; faithfully praying in his name in order that his will may be 
done in them and through them; faithfully witnessing to his power 
in order that he may enter into lives round about them. When 
the mind of Christ becomes the mind of one or more persons in a 
church, and his burdens become their burdens, his suffering their 
suffering, his intercession their intercession, his witnessing their 
witnessing, — a revival is likely to follow. — Sunday School Times. 

Two Pastors 

Years ago two classmates were called to be pastors. They were^ 
good young men. The one was a man of good abilities, the other 
was a genius. As they neared the grave the latter mourned over 
the barrenness of his ministry. The former exulted over the pros- 
pect of meeting in heaven many, many hundreds of his spiritual 
children. Why this difference? They were both highly esteemed, 
but they started with a different purpose. The man of genius 
proposed to preach great sermons. He would draw and hold the 
people by the power of his argument, the fervor of his intellect, 
and the soundness of his doctrine. He had a literary enthusiasm 
for the Bible. He enjoyed logic, general instruction, and brilliant 
style. He lacked faith and point, and concentration of purpose and 
power. He often neglected to pray for the impenitent. Having 
preached a good sermon he left the result with a sovereign God. 

The very first day that the other young pastor looked down upon 

264 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 265 

his congregation he said to himself: 'These are my dear people. 
I am responsible for their souls, and, God helping me, they shall 
be won to Christ/' And so he gave himself to his work. He 
prepared his own soul. He aroused the sympathy and co-operation 
of the church. He made the Sunday School, the meeting of the 
week, and the personal interviews exceedingly interesting and im- 
pressive. He loved the souls of his people. He adopted the most 
appropriate revival methods. His whole soul was fixed on one 
resolve. 

In winning the people to Christ the difference between these 
men was about the same that we see in two men of business. 
The one hoped for it, the other believed in it; the one desired it, 
the other willed it; the one tried it, the other did it. 

The Cost o£ a Revival 

Every pastor wants a revival in his church. In fact, it is the 
cry of the soul that in some way, by some means, there might 
come to his church a blessed revival. While this is true, yet there 
are some who are not willing to pay the cost of a great revival. 
They will take it if it just drops down from above without any 
effort on their part. What is the cost one must pay to have a re- 
vival in his church? 

1. We must be willing to pay the cost of a careful preparation 
both on the part of the preacher and his church. Many a revival 
fails of success because the preacher has not prepared himself for 
the revival. He should be prepared in mind, body and soul for the 
great work. Having prepared himself, the faithful pastor will 
find but little trouble in preparing his church. 

2. We should be prepared to pay the cost of a long and hard 
pull. Many a revival fails because it is closed too soon. In the 
day of sin and indifference you can not undo in a week what sin 
and the devil have been doing a whole lifetime in men. It costs 
something to hold on; yes, much faith, hard work, a great deal 
of prayer and a cheerful heart, all the time believing God is going 
to see something done before the close. We should go into the 
revival meeting to gain great victories. 

3. We should be willing to pay the cost of a complete surrender 
of our all to God. If thou wilt be perfect, "Go sell — give." These 
words to the young man by Christ should be heard by the preacher 
who desires a revival. "Go." Anywhere and everywhere hunting 
for souls. "Go." Out of self into Christ in a surrender of your 
all. "Sell." Sell out your old notions and completely follow Christ. 
"Give," yes, "give." You should give out all you have for Christ 
and the Church. Resolve you will have a revival, cost what it 
may. Prayer, faith, work, preaching, singing, house-to-house, hand- 



266 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

to-hand work, all at it, hard at it and holding on to God and the 
meeting till results are seen. — Rev. Robert Stevens. 

The Pastor's Relation to the Revival 

A young city pastor recently said : "I am so discouraged ; I watch 
and pray and preach and work; but it is so dark; my people are 
respectable and conservative; they are kind and attentive, but there 
is no spiritual quickening; there are no conversions to God; I am 
trying to do my best ; do tell me what more can be done !" 

The late Dr. Gardner Spring, of the Brick Church, New York, 
was greatly depressed in his early ministry. He says : "It seemed 
to me that I must abandon my post and never preach another 
sermon." He saw no way of securing a religious movement. The 
revival that soon followed was a revelation to him. 

Another beloved pastor recently said: "I weep and say, 'Lord, 
speak for thy servant heareth.' I preach with all my heart and 
soul; I dismiss the people; they go out into the world impressed; 
but the world, the flesh and the devil press in, and by the coming 
Sabbath the impressions are lost. What can I do?" 

One of the most able pastors rushed into a ministers' meeting 
and said : "Brethren, you must all come to my help ! A revival 
of religion has begun in my church, and I know not what to do." 

A member of an evangelistic committee once said: "Wherever 
we go we always hear this one remark: *Our difficulties here are 
very peculiar.' " Each church seems to be palsied by the idea of 
insuperable obstacles. Crowds of churches are thus waiting, — ^wait- 
ing, it may be, like the blinded sinner, for the interference of heaven. 

God has disclosed to us the methods used in the revivals of 
Josiah and Nehemiah. Jesus shows us how the revival began in 
Samaria, and Luke how it commenced in the Jerusalem chamber. 

Urge upon all your people the supreme worth of right feeling, 
true prayer and wise action. Show that revivals without the 
power of the Holy Ghost are a monstrosity and a failure. Con- 
stantly refer to the best methods of reaching the neglecters of the 
sanctuary. Do this with such clearness that Christians in ordinary 
circumstances and with honest desires may see their way to an 
immediate and powerful revival. 

Will you not engage in such work? Can you do a better thing? 
To be sure the outward prospect is dark. Men's hearts are hard 
and callous. The people seem to be marshalled around the god of 
this world. Satan seems bound to defeat us. He has the vantage 
ground. His citadels are manned. His banners are waving over 
every valley and his standards are fixed on every hilltop. But our 
Lord is omnipotent. Look to him. He has determined to prevail. 
He says: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 267 

(John 12: 32). Says God: "I have sworn . . . that unto me every 
knee shall bow." (Isa. 45:23). These revivals are coming. They 
must come, for nations are to be born in a day. 'The Prince of 
this world shall be cast out." (John 12:31). Jesus is on our 
side. He loves revivals. Angels rejoice over them. Let us arise 
in the majesty of God's strength. Let us press on — vast in num- 
bers, one in purpose, bold in action, supreme in faith, quenchless 
in zeal. Our Leader calls. Light is dawning, fear is vanishing, vic- 
tory is coming. 

How to Win Souls 

William Evans, in his book, "How To Win Souls," says that 
successful soul winning for God is conditioned upon certain quali- 
fications that are few and simple, and within the reach of the 
humblest child of God. He suggests seven of them: 

1. Be a Christian yourself. "First take the beam out of thine 
own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote that is 
in thy brother's eye." 

2. Live in the Spirit. "And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near 
and join thyself to his chariot." We must "live, move and have 
our being" in the Spirit. 

3. Have a desire to see souls saved. "And when he beheld 
the city he wept over it." 

4. Have a working knowledge of the Bible. The Word of 
God is "the Sword of the Spirit." 

5. Have confidence in the word and promises of God. "It shall 
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, 
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." 

6. Have confidence in the power of God. "For the Son of man 
is come to seek and to save that which was lost." 

7. Must be a man of prayer. "Continuing steadfastly in prayer," 
remembering that though "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, 
yet it is God that must give the increase." 

Special Evangelistic Meetings 

All the agencies of the church, the home, the school, the pulpit, 
and the public and stated services, should have as a chief object 
the winning of souls to Christ. Some of these agencies have lost 
their interest in this object and regard their purpose as only edu- 
cational. The special meetings are regarded by many as the only 
means of evangelistic work. Special meetings have been blessed 
of God in all the centuries, but there always has been and now is 
a strong temptation to artificiality. We will all recognize the fact 
that the Holy Spirit is the divine Executive Agent in any regener- 



268 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

ative work. It is the Spirit alone that quickeneth and giveth life, 
therefore he has much to do about the time of special meetings. 

Evangelistic work is thoroughly spiritual. It must have the 
Spirit's presence and activity. The Holy Spirit comes in answer 
to prayer, and he manifests his saving power when the hearts 
of believers are ready for his reception and co-operation with 
him. 

The suggestions of Pentecost are still timely. The disciples by 
the command of our Lord waited for his coming. This waiting 
for God has been blessed in all ages. The early disciples waited 
in one accord, in fellowship, in prayer and supplication, and at 
last he came with demonstration and power. The beginning of a 
revival and of periods of soul-saving is generally with those whose 
hearts the Lord has touched. It may be at a communion season 
some soul has been melted at the vision of the Lord's love. There 
is a yearning to serve him and a yearning that others should know 
his saving love. This person meets a fellow Christian, whose heart 
has also been touched by the same Spirit and in like manner. They 
talk together, they pray together. Others are found, for the Spirit 
is moving upon the hearts of his people. The numbers increase. 
Often it is the pastor with whom this yearning begins. He finds 
some member of like mind. It spreads. It comes Into the prayer- 
meeting. It appears in the Sabbath-school. The pulpit grows 
warmer, more sympathetic and direct. Sermon after sermon deals 
with sin, with Christ's victory over sin, with salvation, with eternal 
pardon, etc. At last there comes a general yearning and stirring, 
and the overseers of the church, after prayer and counsel, are per- 
suaded that the time for special meetings, for repeated preaching, 
has come. Rarely, when so begun, will revival fail to appear, and 
with the revival of God's people rescue work is manifest in souls 
saved. — The Presbyterian. 

Fishers of Men 

To fish well it is necessary to study the peculiarities of fish, and 
you must go to the fish. One must know fish and he must go to 
the fish. What a book can tell about fishing is worth knowing, 
but it is little that a book can do toward making a man a true 
fisherman, "If a man is going to fish for fish," said a minister, 
who was a good fisherman, **he must first become their scholar 
before he becomes their master. He must go to school in the brook, 
to learn its ways. And to fish for men he must learn their nature, 
their prejudices, their tendencies, and their courses. A man to 
catch fish must not only know their habits, but their tastes and 
their resorts. He must humor them according to their different na- 
tures, and adapt his instruments according to their peculiarities. 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 269 

providing a spear for some, a hook for others, a net for others, 
and baits for each one, as each one will. To sit on a bank or deck 
and say to the fishes, *Here am I, authorized to command you 
to come to me and to bite what I give you,' is just as ridiculous 
as it can be, even though it does resemble some ways of preach- 
ing. The Christian's business is not to stand in an appointed place 
and say to men, 'Here am I; come up and take what I give you 
as you should.' The Christian's business is to find out what men 
are, and to take them by that which they will bite at." 

Not all the truth is contained in these words, but a very great and 
important element of truth is found in them. 

Mr. Charles H. Spurgeon once summed up some of the qualities 
a true fisherman must possess : "A fisherman must be acquainted 
with the sea; we must know the locality in which we have to 
work. A fisherman must know how to allure fish. A fisherman 
must be a man who can wait with patience. A fisherman is one 
who must run hazards. The fisherman must be one who has 
learned how to persevere and how to expect." 

Discussing the International Sabbath School lesson for Feb. 6th, 
speaking on the verse, "Go ye therefore into the highways," Mr. 
William H. Ridgeway said in his racy but true fashion: *'I was at 
Yellowstone Park a few years ago. When we came to the lake 
some of our party went fishing. In less than an hour almost every 
man had caught as many salmon trout as he could comfortably 
carry. I watched one man pull out four at one time, using four 
hooks on his line. Yes, indeed, that's the place to fish. Because 
the fish are there. And 'out unto the highways* is the place to do 
religious work. Because the 'fish' are there. There is no more 
fishing here in the Brandywine. All fished out. Now and then 
you see an old fellow along the banks with hook and line, but he 
is never very hilarious. There he sits like a 'dead one.' Just as 
you see them in that church at Squedunk. Yes, and in some Sab- 
bath schools. When you meet the Trotters, the Wyburns, the 
Noonans, the Crawfords, and any of that company of rescue work- 
ers, and the Salvation Army bunch — all highway sportsmen — ^you 
will find them full of enthusiasm and carrying big strings of fish, 
suckers, eels, catfish and what not. The fellow who wants the most 
fun in religious work will go down-town or out of town to the 
mission Sabbath school in the little red schoolhouse, Griggsby's 
barn, or Murphy's old saloon. Tramping a mountain stream is 
not exactly the same thing as a rocking-chair on a shady porch, 
but look into the creek once ! Yes, a fellow is tired and all in when 
he gets home late Sabbath afternoon, but you ought to see him 
get away with that pie, preferably raisin. And he goes to sleep 
at night without rocking. Yes, the highways are the places to 
fish." (Matt. 4:19; Jer. 16:16.) 



270 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

This is exactly in line with what Mr. D. L. Moody once said. 
Some one asked him, "Mr. Moody, what is the way to reach the 
masses with the Gospel?" "Go for them I" was the quaint and 
characteristic answer. It expresses the life-principle of Mr. Moody. 
It ought to express the life-principle of far greater numbers of 
Christians. 

In all soul-winning work we must remember it is Christ we are 
to exalt, put in the front, and not ourselves. Those familiar rules 
for fishing given by the late Mark Guy Pearse are rules it would be 
well for us to keep always in mind. "I watched an old man trout 
fishing the other day," said he, "pulling them out one after another 
briskly. *You manage it cleverly, old friend,' I said. *I have 
passed a good many below who don't seem to be doing anything.' 
The old man lifted himself up and stuck his rod in the ground. 
*Well, you see, sir, there be three rules for trout fishing, and 'tis 
no good trying if you don't mind them. The first is, Keep yourself 
out of sight; the second is. Keep yourself farther out of sight; and 
the third is. Keep yourself farther still out of sight. Then you'll 
do it.' Good for catching men, too, thought I." 

Let us learn to fish. Let us learn of Christ how to become fishers 
of men. Let us learn to know fish and to go to the fish. — H. 

Revival Preaching 

How can I so preach the gospel that God's people shall be quick- 
ened and sinners shall be saved? This is the grave question of 
the day. For the want of such preaching myriads of souls are 
perishing. It is found in certain localities that the number of per- 
sons awakened and led to Christ through the efforts of the pulpit 
is sadly small. Tens of thousands of sermons have no special 
adaptation to such a result. An occasional sermon of the right 
stamp is usually unavailing. 

Why some pastors have few revivals : The reason of such failure 
in the case of some pastors was very evident. Some laid their fail- 
ure to the sovereignty of God. Others drifted on, waiting for God 
to revive them, as sinners wait for God to convert them. They 
seemed to have no plan, purpose, nor efficient effort for revivals. 
Said one pastor: "I have determined to draw to my church men 
of intellect." His first aim was to have a leading church. His in- 
tellectual efforts did not result in religious fervor. A thousand con- 
centrated rays of the moon give no heat. Another pastor was an 
able preacher, but he was positive and independent; he stood aloof 
from the living, busy world. He did not attract the people. An- 
other pastor interested his congregation, but he was deeply absorbed 
in newspaper, periodical, and literary works. Another pastor was 
preaching faithful gospel sermons in the morning, and lecturing 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 271 

on morality on Sabbath evenings. He failed to follow up the seri- 
ous impressions of the morning. Another pastor was a thought- 
ful preacher. He pleased the fastidious hearer. He fed the sheep 
to repletion; but he rarely addressed a word of alarm to the un- 
godly, or even prayed for them. He seemed to forget the children 
and the stranger. The weekly lecture took the place of the prayer- 
meeting. The spiritual work of the church was left mostly to his 
assistant and the choir. Another pastor was good-natured and in- 
dolent. He was fond of lounging and talking. These pastors were 
men of ability. They occupied most responsible positions. An- 
other pastor, less distinguished, studied and wrote and meant well. 
He had a good congregation, but he lacked practical skill. He 
utterly failed to bring the truth home to the heart and conscience 
of his hearers. Another pastor was doubting and irresolute. His 
motto was : "It is better to do nothing than to venture upon an effort 
and fail." To his vision, the children of Anak were so tall and the 
obstacles were so mighty that, like Israel of old, he chose to wander 
in the wilderness. But cowardice and incapacity in the leader of 
the Lord's host is worse than timidity in the general of an army. 
Courage is indispensable. Another pastor was fond of technicali- 
ties, abstractions, and polish. He failed to proclaim the pointed 
and powerful truths of the gospel. Another pastor was averse to 
excitement. He believed in the quiet private way, and his people 
were just as quiet as he was. Another was a popular and conscien- 
tious young pastor who mourned his supposed inability to move 
his people. I would not depreciate the good accomplished by these 
pastors, but I would to God that their preaching might rise to the 
grand emergency of rescuing souls. The preaching like that of 
Peter and Paul, must be adapted to this end. "It pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 
1:21). The word of God is quick and powerful (Heb. 4:12). 
"Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like as a ham- 
mer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" (Jer. 13:29). 

This is the preaching that reaches the hardened sinner. How 
utterly do some preachers fail in this style of address. "Paul and 
Barnabas so spake that great multitudes believed" (Acts 14:1). 
It was truth, emotion, and manner adapted to this one end. 

In revival preaching the speaker must be very nigh to the Saviour ; 
he must be a humble man, full of faith and the Holy Ghost; he 
must have a personal experience of the truth which he preaches; 
he must be much in prayer and thoroughly in earnest; he must 
say, "God helping me, this one thing I do." Thus prepared he 
must reach and move the Church of Christ. In a revival of re- 
ligion the soldiers of the cross strive to rescue prisoners from the 
enemy. It is a conflict with Satan for souls ; it is a weighty, ardu- 
ous business. The state of feeling must be watched, and one truth 



m 



272 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

after another must be presented that is exactly adapted to rescue 
the largest number of souls. — H. 



Pastor's Communion Class 

The outline may be used in nine lessons, or combined for a shorter 
series. No class should be held for more than forty or fifty minutes. 

J. The Bible 

The Bible is God's message to us. In it he tells us about him- 
self and how he dealt with different persons, and how he will deal 
with us. He tells us important things that we may know are true, 
and how we ought to live. The Bible tells us most of all how 
we may be saved from sin and its consequences to true and holy 
living with all its blessings, and about Jesus who came to earth 
to bring us this salvation. The Bible has many precious promises 
and wise warnings and much good instruction and is in every way 
well fitted to help us to be true and noble. We should give it 
careful attention, "receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our 
hearts and practice it in our lives." 

1. What is the Bible? 

2. What does God tell us in it? 

3. What is its most important message? 

4. Describe its contents. 

5. How should we use it? 

6. Where do we find the Ten Commandments ? Exodus 20 : 3-17. 

7. The Beatitudes? Matthew 5 : 3-12. 

8. The Lord's Prayer? Matthew 6 : 9-13. 

9. How many books in the Bible? In Old Testament 39; in 
New Testament 27. 

10. How did God send his Word to us ? 2 Peter 1 : 21. 2 Tim- 
othy 3 : 16. 

//. God 

God is "a spirit and the Father of our spirits." He is the creator, 
keeper and governor of all things. He is perfectly good, holy, wise 
and powerful, loving and merciful, just and true. We speak of 
God as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but these three 
persons agree and unite in one God. God loves each one of us 
and cares for us, and wishes and requires us to love and obey 
him. 

1. What is God? 

2. Name some qualities of God? 

3. How do we speak of God? 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 273 

4. How does God feel toward us? 

5. How should we feel and act toward God? 

6. How can you show your love for God? 

///. ^S'm and Temptation 

Sin is everywhere contrary to God's will, whether active wrong 
or failure to do right. One of the greatest sins is failure to 
believe in Christ. God's Word, conscience and older Christian 
friends tell us what is sinful. Doubt whether a thing is right is 
God's warning against it. Sin is so bad because it is an offence 
against God to whom we owe such love and gratitude. Every 
sin grieves God and deserves his wrath and punishment. God 
punishes sin because he loves us and wants to keep us from going 
wrong. Sinful acts come from a wicked heart. There is no one 
free from sin. Sin dwarfs and destroys the soul. It separates 
from God and thus produces spiritual death. There are no rewards 
which come from a life of sin. Sin is always injurious. It 
...jy look attractive, but its end is very bitter. When guilty of sin 
we can find forgiveness through Jesus Christ. 

A temptation is anything that makes one want to do wrong. 
Temptations come from our own evil desires as well as from with- 
out. By yielding to them we fall into sin and are brought into 
bondage to evil habits, but in overcoming them we grow strong. 
We should be on our guard against them and when they arise pray 
for God's help. He will make a way of escape or give strength 
to stand the test. 

L What is sin? James 4: 17. 

2. How do we know v/hat is sinful? 

3. What does sin deserve? Why? 

4. What is the result of sin ? James 1 : 15c Romans 6 : 23. 

5. What is temptation? James 1 : 14, 15. 

6. From whence do our temptations come? 

7. What is the result of temptation in our lives? 

8. How should we meet temptation? 

9. What is the best way of overcoming temptation? Romans 
12:21 

10. Why is love for God such a great help? 

11. Was Christ tempted? Hebrews 4: 15= 

12. Did Christ sin? 

13. What is the reward of overcoming temptation ? James 1 : 12. 

IV, Jesus Christ and Salvation 

Jesus Christ was from the beginning the Son of God in heaven. 
J/Vhen he was bom in Bethlehem he became a human being also» 



274 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

and is now both God and man. He came to earth to seek and 
to save the lost. He taught the true way to live, healed the sick, did 
other kind and wonderful deeds, and called people to believe in 
him and follow him. Though sorely tempted, he never sinned. 
But he took our sins upon him and died on the cross to save us 
from them. He rose from the grave and went back to heaven, 
where he is now praying for us and preparing a place for us. 
If we are sorry for our sins, and purpose to please Jesus, he will 
forgive our sins when we ask him in faith. We must also forgive 
others if we would be forgiven. When our sins are forgiven 
God feels towards us and treats ur as if we had not sinned. Jesus 
helps us to overcome temptation and his love in the heart leads us 
to live a true and useful life. If we do not look to him for help 
we will surely fall. We cannot work our way up into character 
alone. Thousands have tried it and failed. Jesus loves us and if 
we love and trust and obey him he gives us eternal life. They alone 
cannot be saved who will not come to him for forgiveness and help. 

1. Who is Jesus Christ? John 20:31. 

2. Why did he come to earth? John 3 : 16. 1 Timothy 1 : 15. 

3. Why was he called "Jesus?" Matthew 1:21. 

4. What did he do for us here? 1 Peter 2:24, 

5. What does he do for us now ? Hebrews 7 : 25. 

6. What must we do to be forgiven ? 1 John 1 : 9. 

7. How does Christ help us to live right? 

8. Why should we love Christ ? 1 John 4 : 19. 

9. How much should we love him? 

10. What will love for Christ lead us to be and do^ 
.11. Why do any people fail to love Christ? 

V, The 'Holy Spirit 

The Holy Spirit comes to us first when we are sinners and makes 
US feel how bad our sin is, and prompts us to accept Christ as 
our Saviour and confess him as our Lord. By heeding this prompt- 
ing we begin the Christian life and God gives us a new heart, 
so that we love and trust Christ and love what is right instead of 
what is wrong. To be a Christian is to accept Christ as Saviour 
and Lord, to be a follower of Christ, and to strive in all things 
to obey him. In becoming Christians we must give up what is 
wrong, but nothing that is good and right. The Christian life is 
the happiest life there is, and we cannot begin it too soon. Some 
signs of the Christian life in the soul are sorrow for sin, belief 
in Christ, love for God, love for God's people, and a desire to 
serve^ God. When we become Christians the Holy Spirit comes 
and lives in our hearts to prompt and help us in studying the Bible 
and praying and working for Christ. In this way we grow in the 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 275 

Christian life. The Christian life crowds out the sinful life. If 
we give up our lives completely to the Spirit's control he will fill 
us with himself, and give us joy and comfort, purity, power and 
victory over sin. Do not resist, grieve or quench the Holy Spirit. 
It should be our constant endeavor to come nearer to the perfect 
character of Christ. 

1. Who is the Holy Spirit? 1 John 5:7. John 14:26. John 
15:26. 

2. What does the Holy Spirit do for the sinner? John 16: 8-11. 

3. How do we become Christians? Acts 16:30^ 31. Romans 
12:1. 

4. What must I give up in becoming a Christian ? 

5. What do I gain? 1 Timothy 4:8. 

6. When should one become a Christian? 2 Corinthians 6:2. 

7. What is it to lead a Christian life? Luke 9:25. 

8. What does the Holy Spirit do for the Christian? John 14: 17. 

9. How do we grow in the Christian life? Psalm 119:11. 1 
Thessalonians 5:17. James 2 : 14. 

10. Does the Holy Spirit love you? Romans 15:30c 

11. Do you think of and love the Holy Spirit? 

12. How can one resist or grieve the Holy Spirit? 

13. How can one best invite the Holy Spirit into his heart? 

14. How best cause him to remain with us? 

15. What blessings do we enjoy from his presence within us? 

VI. Baptis^m and the Lord's Supper 

Jesus has appointed two special customs or holy observances for 
his followers, called sacraments. They are baptism and the Lord's 
Supper. In them things we can see are used to represent Christ 
and the blessings he bestows. They are also a covenant he makes 
with us and a means he uses to bring us his blessings. 

In baptism water is used to represent an inward cleansing. It 
is a sign of our forsaking sin and beginning a new life of holiness 
by the Spirit. It is an expression of faith in Christ and a pledge 
of our being given to him and of his abiding with us and saving us. 

The Lord's Supper is eaten in remembrance of him. It represents 
his sacrifice for us and the shedding of his blood to take away our 
sins. It is a renewal of the baptismal covenant and a means used 
to strengthen us in fidelity and love. It is a real and important 
help in the Christian life. Jesus wishes and commands all who 
believe in him to be baptized and gather at his table. 

1. What is a sacrament? 

2. How many sacraments are there? 

3. Name them. 

4. What is the meaning of baptism? 



276 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

5. What is the meaning of the Lord's Supper? 1 Corinthians 
11:23-26. 

6. Who should observe the sacraments? 

7. Why are we baptized but once? 

8* Why do we observe the Lord's Supper often? 

9. What should be our thoughts when at the Lord's Supper? 

10. Of whom should we think most? 

11. How should we feel toward him? 1 John 4: 19. 

12 How does this coming to the Lord's Supper help and bless us? 

13. How does coming to the Lord's Supper bring us strength? 

14. How does coming to the Lord's Supper bring us joy? 

VIL Confessing Christ and Joining the Church 

Jesus wishes all his followers to be loyal to him by confessing 
him before men as their Saviour and Lord. Ml such he owns 
in heaven. An open confession is a means of strengthening our 
faith and securing our salvation. We should confess Christ by 
our lives as well as by our words. One of the clearest ways of 
confessing him is by joining the Church, which is recognized as 
the company of Christ's followers. Its work is to worship Grod, 
save the lost, strengthen Christians and help the needy. We can 
best serve Christ by joining in his Church with other Christians 
in this work. As Christians we need the help of the duties and 
fellowship of church membership for our own lives. When we 
join the Church we are baptized and receive the Lord's Supper. 
In these observances we publicly profess our faith m Christ. If 
our parents have expressed their faith for us by having us bap- 
tized in infancy, when we join the Church we make for ourselves 
the baptismal confession and pledge, and their faith is fulfilled in 

ours. 

Unless we join the Church we remain outside the one organiza- 
tion Jesus himself established to develop, extend and express Chris- 

1. Why should every Christian confess Christ? Romans 10:9, 

2. How should we confess him? Acts 2:41, 42. 2 Corinthians 
6:17. 

3. What is the Church? 1 Corinthians 1:2. 

4. What is its work? Ephesians 4: 11-16. Matthew 28: 19. 

5. Why should we join it? Luke 12:8. Romans 14: 19. He- 
brews 10:24, 25. 

6. Show how church membership is the clearest confession of 
Christ. 

7. What is the relation between infant baptism and joining the 
Church? 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM ^77 

8. What is true of us if we do not join the Church? Matthew 
12:30. 

9. How does joining the Church help us in the Christian life? 

10. How does our joining the Church help to make other Chris- 
tians ? 

11. Does Christ love the Church? 

12. In what ways can we show love for it? 

VIIL Prayer and the Daily Life 

God wishes us to talk with him, and this is prayer. In prayer 
we should thank God for his benefits, praise him for his excellence, 
confess our faults and ask him to forgive them and help us to be 
better. We may ask for anything we desire and if he sees that it 
is best he will give it. If we pray in faith and sincerity, with a 
heart surrendered to God, results will come. We should have 
regular times to pray, but should pray whenever there is special 
need. We should expect God to answer our prayers, and listen 
and watch for the answer. The Lord's prayer is a good model. 

The Bible is God's message to us. We should study it daily, 
looking for things that apply to ourselves. We should remembeij 
it, meditate on it, believe it, heed it. 

We should use the Sabbath so as to honor God and help us most 
in our Christian life, laying aside work, sports and visiting ; but 
making it the brightest and best day of the week. "Keep your 
Sundays for the great things of the soul." 

We should -uard against temptation and have good companions. 
Those who lead one to disregard sacred things are dangerous. 
Humility, patience, forgiveness, unselfishness, diligence, courage, 
self-control, should be cultivated. Each day should be better than 
the last, and some one happier and better for our living in it. 

1. What is prayer ? 

2. How can we get the most benefit from it? 

3. How should we study the Bible ? 

4. How should we use the Sabbath ? 

5. Speak of other things that should mark the Christian's daily 
life. 

IX. Christian Sermce 

The true Christian wishes to do all the good he can. In this 
Jesus is the great example. We can do Christian service by doing 
our work faithfully, showing a Christian spirit at home and with 
associates, visiting the sick and strangers, helping the needy, en- 
couraging people to do well, being good citizens, and by our prayers. 
There are many who need help besides the poor, and better ways 



278 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

of helping than giving money. The Church, which includes such 
organizations as the Sunday School and Endeavor Society, is the 
great organization for Christian service. We should help all we 
can in its work, attending and taking part in its services, bringing 
and welcoming others, and doing the definite work assigned to us. 
We should give cheerfully of our means as God has prospered us. 
The Old Testament teaches the duty of giving one-tenth to the 
Lord. The New Testament nowhere clearly teaches that this is 
no longer our duty. Those who follow this rule God richly blesses 
as he has promised. The greatest and most delightful service is 
to win some one for Christ. Jesus has commanded his followers to 
"go and make disciples of all nations." Some can go to heathen 
lands with the story of salvation, and the rest can help them 
go while they themselves are missionaries to those around them. 
Faithful service for Christ brings a sure reward. 

1. Why should we do Christian service? Matthew 20:28. 

2. How can we do good in our daily life ? Acts 20 : 35. 

3. Why and how should we work in the Church? 

4. What is our duty in giving ? Proverbs 3 : 9. 

5. Is it possible for us to help others to become Christians? 
Acts 1:8. 

6. How can we do this ? '^ 

7. Why should we do it? Daniel 12:3. 

8. Is it right for us to leave the heathen without true knowledge 
of God? 

9. How can we give them the Gospel ? Matthew 28 : 19, 20.. 

10. Will Christ accept the service of every Christian? 

11. What rewards for service will he give? Matthew 10:42. 
Matthew 25 : 37-40. Revelation 2 : 10.— Adapted and used by 
H. 

After the Revival 

°*After the revival'* is a time of special responsibility, and also 
of special opportunity. Opportunity means not in the harbor, but 
just opposite the port — the place where entrance is easily obtain- 
able. Chances for usefulness confront us on every hand — unusual 
chances, containing possibilities of success. But not one of these 
chances is anything more than a place opposite some port which 
must be entered by our own efforts if we would realize the good 
our bright outlook holds in store. 

Even as concerning the new members received, or soon to be 
received, let us remember that our duty toward them has only just 
begun, and that their Christian characters will become largely what 
our churches make them. 

Do we realize that all of these who have come into our churches 



PASTORAL EVANGELISM 279 

are just Hopeful cases? They have started, but we are to see that 
they do not turn back. They are souls we are to help, and guide, 
and teach, and lead. 

It has often been said that new members uniting with the Church 
assume grave responsibilities. True, they do ; but their responsibili- 
ties are no greater than those laid upon the Church. If anything, 
the greater weight of responsibility rests upon the older members of 
the Church who receive them into their midst. Much is going 
to depend in all our churches upon how we do our duty toward the 
new members admitted. 

Among our duties, one is this — to receive them with Christian 
love, and not with the cold formality of a business transaction. 

Scientific men tell us that if the chrysalis of a butterfly is placed 
in an ice house its development into the perfect insect may be re- 
tarded for months, but place it in a hothouse, and it flutters a 
thing of beauty in a few days. The same principle holds good as 
to the new members in our churches. We heard a minister at a 
Christian Endeavor convention say not long ago that he often 
wondered why some naughty college boys did not steal the sign, 
"Cold Storage," off some of the great city warehouses where ducks, 
and geese, and rounds of beef, and cabbage heads, etc., are stored, 
and nail it up as an appropriate sign over certain churches he 
knew. He thought it would not prove a misfit. 

God forbid that we should give our new converts nothing but 
church storage — cold storage at that! God forbid that we should 
let them get into spiritual ice houses, where the frigid atmosphere 
will only chill their hearts and retard their growth. Let us see that 
we open wide our affections, and receive every one of them to a 
cheerful Christian fireside, a warm church home, a place of sym- 
pathy, and helpfulness, and love. 

Again, it is our duty to receive them with hopeful confidence, 
and not with dubious suspicion of their future. Already we have 
heard questionings as to how long or how many of our converts will 
hold out. Well, that, too, is going to depend largely upon us. They 
will hold out if we hold on. There is no question at all about the 
most of them holding out if we will each begin to do like Interpreter 
in the House Beautiful, and edify, and exhort, and comfort, and 
help these pilgrims. They are all beginners in the Christian life; 
they are "babes in Christ;" they are "lambs of the flock;" and 
they are to be nurtured and cared for accordingly. Remember that 
we are to feed, not beat, the lambs. 

Furthermore, and just as important as either of these things we 
have mentioned, is it that we should enlist them actively in Chris- 
tian work. This, too, should be done right at the beginning. A 
speaker at a recent convention of young people told the story 
of a little boy who fell out of bed, and when asked why, explained 



28o THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

by saying, **I presume I went to sleep too near where I got in/' 
Well, a good many people fall out of church for the same reason — 
they go to sleep too near where they got in. Probably, under un- 
favorable surrounding conditions, there is no time when people go 
to sleep quite so easily as immediately after they unite with the 
church. Having accomplished what may have seemed to them a 
very difficult duty, the tendency is to take a good long breath, 
and — go to sleep. Yet it is also true that there is no time in their 
history when they can so readily be kept awake and set to work. 
Now, it is our bounden duty to help these new members further in. 
We must keep them awake, and enlist them heartily and actively 
in all kinds of Christian effort. This will prove best not only for 
the work, but for the workers, too ; for let us remember that there 
is nothing like exercise to keep people warm and well. Why, even 
a horse, if shut up in a stall, unused, will become loggy and dull, 
and eventually will die. So is it with Christians, and especially 
with beginners. They need exercise. As far as that is concerned, 
none of us are ever more truly alive than when we are busily 
engaged in Christian service, doing what we can "in his name" 
and "for his sake." 

Keeping these things in mind, and acting upon them, we will find 
that, instead of a reaction, the most prosperous, active, and useful 
period in the life of our churches may be that season known in 
common language as "after the revival." — H. 



IX 

VOCATIONAL EVANGELISM 

Real Value of an Evangelist 

We do not believe that evangelists are to take the place of reg- 
ular, faithful ministers, but there are times when an evangelist, 
specially trained in the art of persuading people to decide, may 
build upon a pastor's good work and bring many into the king- 
dom. The following from the pen of Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman illus- 
trates this fact^. 

I remember being invited to a community where a pastor had been 
in charge of the church for forty-five years. When I appeared in 
his pulpit on Sunday morning he made an introductory speech 
something like this : *'My friends, I have invited this minister here 
in order that he may preach to you. He will have no new message, 
but he may have some methods different from mine. The most 
of you have grown up under my pastorate. I baptized you as 
children, and I have baptized your own children, and since coming 
into the pulpit this morning I have counted forty-three heads of 
families who are not professed followers of Christ. And, oh, my 
friends," he said, "I beseech you to listen to this message from 
other lips and yield yourselves to Christ." He spoke with much 
emotion, and with such an introduction I began my work. All of 
the forty-three came to Christ and united with the church. I was 
simply building upon his invitation. I was reaping where he had 
sown, and the success God gave me was a tribute to his faithful- 
ness. 

The Vocational Evangelist 

The Church has always recognized that its Divine Founder "gave 
some pastors and teachers." Why has it been so slow to recognize 
the other fact that "he gave some evangelists"? Professional evan- 
gelism — professional in the good sense of the term — or better, voca- 
tional evangelism, has been slow coming to recognition in the 
Church. There is every call for pastoral evangelism; but that 
does not contradict the call to vocational evangelism. 

A leading American pastor has well said : "It is time that we 
stopped sneering at the 'professional' evangelist. It is a right 
use of words, but a wrong use of emphasis. The evangelist is 
professional in the same sense that a minister, a physician, or a 

28l 



a82 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

carpenter is professional, and only so. When we want a piazza 
built, we employ a professional carpenter, not a wood butcher. 
When we want our appendix removed, we call upon a professional 
surgeon. When we see the necessity of arousing churches and 
communities from lethargy, we turn to an evangelist." 

The person we quote spoke of the lethargy of respectability. We 
would add that there are other kinds of lethargy besides that. 
There is the lethargy of indifference, the lethargy of an even tenor 
of the way, the lethargy of spiritual indolence, the lethargy of pre- 
occupation, the lethargy of sinful indulgence. Even good people 
sometimes fall into the lethargy of a love for things as they are, and 
need to be jarred out of their accustomed content. At such a time 
there is need for a vocational evangelist. 

Just what is a vocational evangelist? In the New Testament 
sense an evangelist is a "herald of glad tidings." The word trans- 
lated "evangelist" is from the same root as the word translated 
"Gospel," and to evangelize is to "preach the Word." In the 
Epistle to the Ephesians evangelists are enumerated side by side 
with the apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers. This gives no 
implication that only evangelists could or should evangelize. All 
who knew the Gospel had a right to do that. Timothy was ex- 
horted to "do the work of an evangelist." Philip, one of the seven 
deacons at Jerusalem, is called an evangelist. But evangelists were 
regarded as itinerants, traveling from place to place. This was the 
case with Philip, who preached in Samaria, expounded the Word 
to the eunuch on his way to Gaza, and then labored in Caesarea 
and the cities round about. Evangelists no doubt often acted in- 
dependently, but more largely as "fellow laborers" with and assist- 
ants to the apostles. 

There is such a thing as a vocational evangelist, and vocational 
evangelists are coming into more general recognition. At no time 
has vocational evangelism played such an important part in modem 
church life as it has within the last four or five years. It is a factor 
that no careful observer can fail to take into account. Evidence 
is irrefutable that whole communities are lifted up to higher ideals 
of right living and that multitudes are won to Christ. 

The cause of temperance, also, has had no more powerful adjunct 
than the tabernacle and other meetings of evangelists. 

Sometimes objections are made to evangelists that they use high- 
pressure methods. They do use such methods. And there are 
obvious limitations to high-pressure methods. But so are there also 
to low-pressure methods. But these objections are nothing com- 
pared to those that should be made against no-pressure methods. 
Almost anything is better than indifference. An old pilot once said : 
"You can not steer a boat while it is lying still." In movement 
there is life, and there is possibility. Stagnation itself is death. 



VOCATIONAL EVANGELISM 283 

"And he gave some, evangelists." Vocational evangelism de- 
serves to have recognition. It should be given its rightful place not 
only as a New Testament order of the ministry, but as a very 
vital factor in our twentieth-century church life. The right kind 
of vocational evangelism will have many healthful results. 

We believe in revivals of religion. We believe in special efforts to 
promote them. And we believe that such efforts are both rational 
and scriptural. We are not afraid even of the expression, "getting 
up a revival." Why should we be? Though we might prefer the 
expression, "bringing down a revival." But we are not afraid of 
revivals. 

Are men afraid of special efforts when they want to promote 
other interests, educational, financial, patriotic? Who calls a man 
a fanatic if he pleads for the cleaning up of his village, or town, 
or for public improvements, or for better schools? Who does not 
know that to arouse the public attention, or to reach the individual 
in any good, often requires the most persistent, prolonged and ear- 
nest agitation? Why should we be so slow to see that the history 
of the race shows that the majority of men never see their high- 
est good without powerful appeals to them on the part of others? 
The whole trend of Scripture is in favor of revivals of religion. 
The whole history of the Church is in favor of revivals of religion. 
The Christian Church was born in a revival. It has never lived 
without revivals, and it never will. 

The tendency of the race is toward materialism in secular life and 
formalism in devotion. These things creep upon us as insidiously 
as malarial poison inoculates all who come in its way. The Church 
may do many good things in a social way in the community. It 
may do large things in an educational way. It may do much for 
higher culture. It may very properly do all these things and more. 
But the business of the Church and the business of the ministry 
is to convert men from evil unto God, to turn men from the ways 
of death unto the path of eternal life. Christians everywhere 
know that this is true. The Church has many tasks, all high and 
noble. But its first and great task is to win men to Jesus Christ, 
the world's Saviour. No one need ever be afraid of the work of 
any really worthy vocational evangelist. — H. 

The Preaching That Attracts 

At a Christian Endeavor rally in New York City, Rev. J. Wilbur 
Chapman, D.D., said: "I am just returned from what, practically, 
has been a four years' absence from my native land. And out of 
this opportunity for reaching a just estimate, I can say that all over 
the world the men who are holding the crowds, the men whose 
labors are being signally crowned with success, the men who above 



284 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

all others are being listened to and followed, are the men who stand 
four-square on the Bible as the authoritative Word of the living 
God, and who are preaching the unimpeachable divinity of Jesus 
Christ as Son, Saviour and Lord." 

That is a preacher's testimony. Let us listen to what a layman, 
a busy business man, Mr. William H. Ridgeway, of Coatesville, 
Pa., says along a kindred line. *'When I go down into the earth 
(into the coal mine) I am always interested in and glad to see that 
far-away little white spot that shows the place out. The preacher 
makes the greatest mistake of his life if he thinks the intellectual 
audience wants the intellectual sermon in preference to the good- 
news sermon. Both the Avenue and the Slum want to see the way 
out, whether they make for it just then or not. I have been to hear 
great music by great artists. The audience goes wild on the heart 
song. They just applaud when she 'shows what she can do.' " 

With evangelists and evangelistic meetings he has heartiest sym- 
pathy, for he adds: "Down at Formaltown there is no getting to- 
gether, no outburst of song, no wakening up. Down there religion 
is a pretty cold, half-dead thing, where they *take no stock in this 
Billy Sunday business.* I have just been in a town or two where 
crowds have packed tabernacles night after night for weeks, and 
the sawdust trails have had no grass growing on them. This is 
what I find. Dr. Disapprove: The churches are all crowded full of 
worshipers, the Sunday schools humming like factories, and both 
pulpit and pew vibrating with joy and spirit." 

The gospel is the great attraction. The good news of salvation 
from hell below to heaven above is the great attraction. Yes, the 
divine Christ, Son of God and Son of man, able and willing to 
save, is the great attraction. Where the saving Christ is lifted 
up men will be drawn, and when he is lifted up hearts will go 
out to accept and love and serve him. — H. 

Evangelists 

When our Redeemer "ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto 
men" — "some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ ; 
till we all come in the unity of the faith unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the stature of Christ." Thus we see that the work 
was not to be done through one department of Christian labor, 
nor were different offices to be merged in one, and placed on one 
man ; but there were to be several distinct offices of ministerial labor, 
each calling for special qualifications, and each filled by its own 
special workmen, yet all working in perfect harmony, and for the 
same end—the perfecting of the kingdom of .Christ. 



VOCATIONAL EVANGELISM 285 

The Saviour having established these different departments, has 
always placed his seal of approbation on them, and says to those 
who labor in either of them, "Lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world." 

One of these departments, as we have seen, is that filled by the 
evangelist. An evangelist is a minister who is not settled over a 
church, at least permanently, but is temporarily to fill a vacancy, to 
form new churches and to assist pastors and churches in special 
labor for the salvation of souls, whenever such labor is needed. 

Work began in this branch of service with the commencement 
of the church of Christ. Thus we find Philip, the evangelist, going 
forth and engaging in meetings in different places, for the purpose 
of promoting revivals of religion. *'He went down to the city of 
Samaria, and preached Christ unto them," continuing the meeting 
for some days and perhaps weeks. The work became so deep and 
general, that Peter and John were sent down from Jerusalem by 
the brethren, to assist in carrying it forward. After a while these 
brethren returned to Jerusalem, but Philip went on towards Gaza, 
baptizing the eunuch on the way. So pressing were the calls for 
this kind of labor, that the "Spirit caught away Philip," and has- 
tened him on to other places that were waiting for him. His next 
field of labor was at Azotus ; but how long he remained there we are 
not told. From Azotus he went on, and preached in all the cities 
till he came to Cesarea. Here was his home — the evangelist's home. 

Paul and his company stopped with this evangelist, and rested 
several days. It was no doubt a pleasure to Philip and his family 
to entertain such distinguished guests. 

One great source of comfort to an evangelist in his work is the 
necessity of living near the Saviour, if he would have success. 
Most pulpits are now supplied with good, and in many instances 
talented ministers, who preach clearly the gospel of Christ: the 
ground is ploughed, and the seed sown, and only needs the showers 
and harvest sun to commence "bringing in sheaves," so that the 
evangelist's work consists largely in helping "gather in the harvest." 
To do this work, he must have "power with God." He must abide 
in Christ if he would reach and move the hearts of men. 

It is said, "Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy 
Ghost and faith; and much people was added to the Lord." 

We ought to abide in the fullness of Christ's love; but if we do 
not from choice, it is a great blessing to be compelled by the very 
nature of our work to do so. This alone is an ample reward for 
any sacrifice we can make. 

There is to the evangelist also the joy of constantly making new 
friends — and very warm and lasting friends are those made in 
a revival. What a joy, then, to be yearly increasing the number of 
real friends by thousands! 



286 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

Another joy in this work is that of seeing immediate results from 
his labors. He labors for this, and looks for it — if he is right him- 
self — without a doubt, and is not disappointed. Here the reaper 
overtakes the sower, and both rejoice together. Every month of 
his labor he is, perhaps, permitted to see hundreds of precious 
souls gathered into the kingdom of Christ, and the churches greatly 
revived and strengthened. 

But the greatest joy connected with the work of a faithful evan- 
gelist is in reserve for him until his labors are ended, and he has 
passed within the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem. Then, when 
the glories of that wondrous world have fully burst upon his en- 
raptured vision; when his feet have really pressed its gold-paved 
streets, and the bright, beautiful banks of its flowing river; when 
the music of the harps of gold, and of angel voices have thrilled 
his soul; when he has really seen and bowed himself before the 
Saviour; when he begins to realize the blessedness and peace of 
such a home, — who shall describe the joy of his heart, as, from 
that white-robed throng there come many thousands, gathering 
around him, grasping him by the hand in gratitude and love, and 
lead him to the Redeemer, saying, "J^^us, we have believed on 
thee, and been led to this beautiful world through this one whom 
thou didst appoint to *do the work of an evangelist' in thine earthly 
kingdom!" Oh, the joy of such an hour! And the endless ages 
roll on, and his expanding mind ranges in wider fields of knowl- 
edge, and comprehends more and more the glories and wonders 
of the "inheritance of the saints," that joy will be ever growing 
deeper and sweeter, as he meets from time to time those who were 
brought there through his labors. 

There may be greater trials in other departments of ministerial 
labor than in that of the evangelist, but there cannot be greater 
joys. And he whom God calls to this work may well rejoice and 
give to it all his strength and powers. — Rev. A. B. Earle^ D.D. 



X 

TEN GREAT REfVIVAL SERMONS 

ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR 

By Christmas Evans 
(Born December 25, 1776) 

Text: "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God 
and man, the man Christ Jesus^ 1 Tim. 2 : 5. 

The apostle Paul urges the propriety and importance of praying 
for all men in the several conditions and relations of life from a 
consideration of God's merciful intentions toward all men as ex- 
hibited in the sufficiency of the gospel provision for their salvation. 
But if any are saved it must be through the medium which God 
has ordained and in the manner which God has prescribed. There- 
fore the apostle adds : "For there is one God, and one Mediator 
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." "There is one 
God," to whom sinners have to be reconciled; "and one Mediator," 
through whom that reconciliation is to be effected. We have a nearly 
parallel passage in another epistle. 

"To us there is but one God, and Father, of whom are all things, 
and we in him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, 
and we by him." The unity of God and the mediation of Christ 
are the two great topics of the text to which we solicit your at- 
tention. 

I. "For there is one God." Two infinite beings cannot co-exist, 
unless they are one in essence and in operation. The God of Israel 
pervades the universe of matter and fills the immensity of space. 
There is no room for another God possessing the same ubiquity. 
"There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through 
all, and in you all." In him alone all things live, move, and have 
their being. 

This doctrine is stamped on all the works of nature. They all 
exhibit unity of design and must have been contrived by the same 
infinite wisdom and executed by the same infinite power. The 
hand which created and arranged them is constantly seen in their 
preservation. The Maker of all things continues to uphold all 
things by the word of his power. The great Architect still presides 
over the immense fabric which he has reared. The universe from 
age to age is governed by the same unvarying laws. All things 
remain as they were from the beginning. The earth, the air and the 

287 



288 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

sea sustain the same mutual relations and answer the same important 
ends; and the sun, the moon and the stars, shine on for ever. The 
same order and regularity everywhere prevail as when the chorus 
of the morning stars welcomed the new creation into being. Nature 
proclaims aloud : "There is one God." 

The same doctrine is impressed upon the Bible. It is not only 
the book of God, but evidently the book of "one God." It is a 
series of Divine Revelations reaching from Eden to Calvary, and 
from Calvary onward to the end of the world. It is a golden chain 
passing through all time and uniting the two eternities ; and all its 
links are similar, and depend upon each other. Its several parts 
are perfectly harmonious, proving them to have emanated from 
the same infinite mind. Everywhere we find the same character 
of God and of man; the same description of the law and of sin; 
the same way of pardon, and holiness, and immortal life. The same 
Eternal Spirit that inspired the Historian of Creation speaks in 
the Apocalypse of St. John, and in all the intervenient books of 
the Bible. It was the same Sun of Righteousness that rose in 
Eden, and set on Calvary; and thence rose again the third day to 
set no more for ever. 

"The world by wisdom knew not God." The heathen lost the 
doctrine of the unity of God; not because it was difficult to pre- 
serve but because they did not love the character of God, "did 
not like to retain God in their knowledge." The pride of the 
carnal mind led them to turn away from the light of heaven to 
walk amid sparks of their own kindling. They boasted of their 
wisdom; they boasted of their philosophy. And what gained they 
by the exchange? The most absurd and stupid notions of the Great 
First Cause; almost total ignorance of his attributes. "Professing 
themselves to be wise, they became fools; and changed the glory 
of the incorruptible God into an image made with hands, like unto 
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creep- 
ing things." Shame to philosophic Greece and Rome ! 

No nation having once lost the doctrine of the unity of God, 
ever regained it by the light of nature. If the light of nature is 
sufficient to preserve it in possession, it is not sufficient to restore it 
lost. It is restored only by the gospel. The gospel has restored it 
in India, in Otaheite, and other heathen lands. It has done more; 
it has revealed to the savage the only way of salvation; it has 
"brought life and immortality to light." 

"Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel! 
Win and conquer ! never cease !" 

Lift up thy voice with strength, and proclaim to Greece and 
Rome, and to all the ends of the earth, as well as to the cities 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 289 

of Judah, that the Son of Mary is the God of Israel, "God manifest 
in the flesh/' "God blessed forever!" "The man Christ Jesus" is 
"the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his 
person, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" 
"in whom also we have redemption through his blood, the forgive- 
ness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." 

II. But this leads us to our second topic: "And one Mediator 
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." The two doctrines 
you perceive are intimately related to each other. "One God" — 
"One Mediator." As we have but "one God," we need but "One 
Mediator." As that Mediator is himself God, the merit of his 
mediation is sufficient for the salvation of all them that believe. 

The office of a Mediator supposes two parties at variance, be- 
tween whom he interposes to produce a reconciliation. It is thus 
"between God and man." God gave man a law, "holy and just and 
good;" man revolted, and "there is wrath." Reconciliation is im- 
possible without the intervention of a mediator. Let us look at the 
parties engaged in this dreadful controversy. 

On one side we see Jehovah possessed of infinite perfections and 
clothed with uncreated excellence and glory. He is self-existent, 
independent and eternal. Omnipresence, Omniscience and Almighti- 
ness are his. He is great in wisdom, full of goodness, slow to anger, 
and ready to pardon. His love is ineffable, and "his mercy en- 
dureth for ever." He is "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
doing wonders." These perfections are the pearls and diamonds in 
his crown. "With him also is terrible majesty." Life and joy are 
in his smile, but the angel of destruction waits upon his frown. One 
\l)eam of his love can raise thousands of men to heaven : one glance 
of his anger sink myriads of angels to hell. "He sitteth upon the 
circles of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshop- 
pers." "All nations before him are as nothing; they are counted 
less than nothing and vanity." "He doeth according to his will 
among the children of men, and ruleth the armies of heaven." "At 
his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to 
abide his indignation." Oh, what majesty and power belong unto 
the Lord our God ! 

With this imperfect view, contrast the impotence and insignifi- 
cance of sinful man. What is he? A being of yesterday, "whose 
breath is in his nostrils," and "whose foundation is in the dust." 
A frail, helpless, perishing thing; dependent upon God, the Creator, 
for all his comforts, for Hfe itself. What is man? A fool; an 
alien from all good; an embodiment of all evil. His understanding 
is dark; his will perverse; his affections carnal. His "throat is an 
open sepulchre;" swallowing up "whatsoever things are true, pure, 
lovely, or of good report;" emitting a pestilential vapor, which 
withers every green herb and sweet flower and delicious fruit of 



igo THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

honor to God and happiness to man. "The poison of asps is under 
his tongue;" an inflaming poison, affecting all the members, and 
"setting on fire the whole course of nature, and it is set on fire of 
hell." "His heart is fully set in him to do evil ;" "deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked." He is an enemy to his Maker ; 
a rebel against Jehovah ; a blank — nay, worse — a blot in God's crea- 
tion ; dead to every virtue, dead to every thing but sin ; lost to every 
gracious purpose of his being; a withered branch, fit only to be 
plucked off and cast into the fire; stubble, ready for the burning. 
"Let him alone!" said Reason. "Cut him down!" cried Justice. 
"I hate the workers of iniquity!" added Holiness. "He or I must 
perish!" exclaimed Truth. "Spare him! Spare him! Spare him!" 
pleaded weeping Mercy. And Wisdom came forth, leading the Son 
of God, and said : "I have found a ransom ! Behold the Mediator !" 
And all the attributes met and embraced at the manger, and kissed 
each other at the cross ! 

, It was man's place as the offender to seek a reconciliation. 
God was under no obligation. But, alas ! man had neither the means 
nor the inclination. What could be done? Hear, O ye heavens! 
and be astonished ! Listen, O earth ! and wonder and adore ! While 
man was far from God, an enemy in his heart by wicked works, 
rushing on in determined hostility to his Maker's government, and 
there was no sacrifice found for his sin, and no disposition in him to 
seek a sacrifice, God sought within himself the adequate and only 
means of pardon and peace. He found in his own bosom the Lamb 
for the altar ; exhibited him to Israel in the predictions and promises 
of the Old Testament; and in the fullness of time sent him forth 
to expiate sin by the offering of himself, once for all. "For the 
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; and we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth." "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
self, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." 
God provided a Mediator. Why ? Did he fear that the deserv^ed 
ruin of the human race would dethrone eternal Justice? No. 
Eternal Justice would have been honored as much in their destruc- 
tion as in their salvation. The law would have been as fully vin- 
dicated in the infliction of its penalty upon the transgressor as in the 
reparation of its breach by a vicarious atonement. The glory of the 
Divine government would have been untarnished, as when the rebel 
angels were cast down from heaven and locked up in everlasting 
darkness. This wondrous provision was not the result of necessity, 
but the prompting of Infinite Love. Divine Mercy sought to remove 
the barrier interposed by Divine Justice. The sinner cannot be 
pardoned till his Great Substitute has met the demands of the law. 
There must be a full satisfaction and settlement of its claims as the 
only ground on which the rebel can be acquitted. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 291 

Love is the *'Alpha and Omega" of redemption, the love of God 
to man. Read it in the journey of the Mediator from heaven to 
earth ! Read it in his pilgrimage through the land of sorrow ! Be- 
hold him "nailed to the shameful tree!" See the blood and water 
gushing from his side ! Hear the sound of the water-spouts, as the 
floods of wrath roll over him ! Then ask the reason. The answer 
is: "God is love." "He is not willing that any should perish." It 
seemed good in his sight to save his rebel children, whatever it might 
cost him. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
eternal life." "Herein is love, not that we loved God" — no; we 
hated him; we were his sworn, inveterate foes; "but that he loved 
us" — loved us while we were yet enemies — loved us with an ineffable 
love; "and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
"^ Wonderful must be the qualifications of such a Mediator. He 
fills with his own merit the gap between two worlds. He bows the 
heavens and lifts up the earth to meet them. He takes hold of God 
and man and brings them together in himself. He reconciles the 
rebel and the law, glorifies the Father by humbling himself, and his 
cross becomes our life and his tomb the birthplace of our immor- 
tality. 

England and Wales could not be united till the son of the king of 
England was born in Wales, and became Prince of Wales. The 
English regarded him as heir to the throne of England; while the 
Welsh claimed him as their brother, a native of their own country, 
born in the castle of Csernarvon. Behold "the well beloved" — "the 
only begotten of the father," "heir of all things," "Lord of lords, 
and King of kings," born "in Bethlehem of Judea;" "the Son of 
God — the Son of man ;" partaking of both natures and representing 
both parties in the great controversy. He is "the Mighty God, and 
the Everlasting Father;" yet he is our near kinsman — bone of our 
bone, and flesh of our flesh. In his person, heaven and earth are 
joined; by his blood God and man are reconciled. Heaven is his 
throne, for God is his Father; earth is his principality, for it is the 
land of his nativity. In him angels recognize their King, and men 
behold their brother. 

I gaze on the cross, and methinks I hear the victim say : "Look 
unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth ; for I am God, and 
beside me there is none else. I opened a way for my people of old, 
by dividing the waters, to the Canaan of Promise; I am now pre- 
paring a path for believers, through the red sea of my blood, to the 
inheritance in heaven. I gave the law amid fire and smoke on Sinai, 
and thundered forth my curse upon its violator; I am here on 
Calvary, to honor that violated law, and remove that curse from its 
violator by taking it upon myself. Behold my hands, my feet, my 
side ! This blood, O men ! is your sacrifice. I will expiate your sin 



292 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

by my sufferings. I will magnify the law, and make it honorable. 
And though in your nature I hang on this tree to-day, I will revive, 
and live for ever, to make intercession for the transgressors, and 
save to the uttermost all that come unto God by me !" 

HI. The mediatorial office of "the man Christ Jesus" consists of 
two parts, sacrifice and intercession. They are equally important, 
and mutually dependent. Without sacrifice, there is no ground of 
intercession; without intercession, there is no benefit in sacrifice. 
The former renders the latter influential with God; the latter ren- 
ders the former available to man. The one removes the obstacles to 
reconciliation, the other brings the adverse parties together. 

1. The first part of the mediatorial office is sacrifice. In order to 
understand this aright, we must have correct views of God, of man, 
and of sin. We must consider God as the lawgiver and governor of 
the universe, eternally hostile to all iniquity, and determined to sus- 
tain his just administration. We must consider man as a guilty 
and polluted creature, a rebel in arms against his Maker, a prisoner 
under sentence and deserving punishment. We must consider sin 
as an inexcusable omission of duty, and a flagrant transgression of 
the law under circumstances of peculiar aggravation. The debt 
must be paid or the sinner must perish. An atonement must be 
made, of merit equal to the turpitude of our crimes. The stain 
which we have cast upon the law must be washed out by blood of 
infinite preciousness. This is the work of our Mediator. He "gave 
himself a ransom for all." He made a perfect satisfaction for our 
sins. "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for 
our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
with his stripes we are healed." It is not by blood of bulls and 
goats, slain on Jewish altars, but by a nobler and costlier sacrifice 
— the paschal "Lamb of God," that heaven and earth are recon- 
ciled — God and man united. 

2. The second part of the mediatorial office is intercession. It 
was through the High-priest, the typical mediator, that God com- 
municated with Israel and Israel communicated with God; it is 
through "the man Christ Jesus," the real Mediator, that God speaks 
to the world and receives the prayers of his people. Having "borne 
the sins of many," he "maketh intercession for the transgressors." 
"He hath entered into heaven himself there to appear in the pres- 
ence of God for us." He has gone into the holy of holies, with "the 
blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of 
Abel." "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous." "Through him we both" — that is, both 
Jews and Gentiles — "have access by one Spirit unto the Father." 
He holds in his hand the golden censer and offers much incense be- 
fore the throne. It is this that perfumes our prayers and renders 
them acceptable to God. He pleaded for his murderers when he 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 293 

hung upon the cross and now he pleads in heaven for those who 
crucify him afresh. And what is the ground of his plea? Not the 
merit of our works, but the merit of his own sufferings. Not the 
infinitude of the Father's mercy, but the sufficiency of his own sacri- 
fice. This is the sure foundation of a sinner's hope. If Satan sug- 
gests that his crimes are too great to be forgiven, he may reply: 
"The man Christ Jesus" is my advocate, the advocate of "the chief 
of sinners;" 

"And should I die with mercy sought, 
When I his grace have tried, 
I sure should die — delightful thought! — 
Where sinner never died!" 

"One Mediator." There is no choice. You must accept of him, 
or remain unreconciled, and be cast into hell. Israel found but one 
path through the Red Sea; the church shall never find more than 
one way to the heavenly Canaan. It is only by faith in the "One 
Mediator" that you can obtain the favor of the "One God." He is 
the elect and beloved of the Father, the appointed medium of man's 
approach, the designated channel of God's communication. "Neither 
is there salvation in any other." No other has been provided. No 
other is suited to our necessities. O sinner! come through this 
"new and living way!" Christ invites your confidence. 

"Venture on him ; venture freely ; 
Let no other trust intrude ! 
None but Jesus, none but Jesus, 
Can do helpless sinners good." 

These glorious truths we cannot read too often, or meditate too 
rnuch. They represent to us the great evil of sin, the infinite mercy 
of God, the inflexible character of the law, and the incalculable 
preciousness of the gospel. Such is the Father's estimate of the 
Mediator that he will be reconciled to sinners only through his 
blood. He is well pleased with his Son, and well pleased with all 
who seek him through his Son, and nothing is more offensive to him 
than the rejection of his Son. May these remarks preserve you 
from despair under a sense of your guilt and wretchedness; drive 
you from all false refuges to the cross, with a penitent and grateful 
heart ; induce you to trust, not in your own strength, or wisdom, or 
righteousness, but in the adorable name of Jesus; to live a life of 
faith in him, of love towards him, and of patient waiting for his 
mercy unto eternal salvation ! 

If you are already partakers of these blessings, how transcendent 
is your privilege! "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the 



^94 'THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ; and to an innumerable company 
of angels; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to the 
general assembly and church of the first-born, v^hich are written in 
heaven; and to God, the judge of all; and to Jesus, the Mediator 
of the new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 
better things than that of Abel." Follow the Captain of your salva- 
tion. Cleave to him in the fire and the flood. Turn not aside to 
the lying vanities of the world, lest you drink the cup of its eternal 
sorrows. Remember that those who suffer with the crucified shall 
reign with the glorified; that such as are faithful unto death shall 
receive the crown of life. Be careful to "keep the unity of the 
spirit in the bond of peace." Endure unto the end, and ye shall 
be saved. 

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our 
Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of 
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to 
do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever." 
Amen. 

YE WILL NOT COME TO ME 

By Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne 
(Born May 21, 1813) 

Text: '^And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life'* 
John 5 : 40. 

There is nothing more sad and nothing more strange than that 
when there is a Saviour that is enough for all the world, so few 
should come to him to be saved. If a life-boat were sent out to a 
wreck sufficient to save all the crew and if it came back with less 
than half of them you would inquire with anxiety why the rest had 
not been saved by it. Just so, when Christ has come to seek and 
save that which was lost and yet the vast majority are unsaved it 
behooves us to inquire why so many are not saved by Christ. We 
have the answer in these words : "Ye will not come to me, that ye 
might have life." Sinners are lost, not by reason of anything in 
Christ, but by reason of something in themselves. They will not 
come to Christ, that they might have life. 

I. It is not by reason of anything in Christ that sinners are lost. 

1. It is not because Christ is not sufficient to save all. The whole 
Bible shows that Christ is quite sufficient to save all the world ; that 
all the world would be saved if all the world were to come to 
Christ : "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
world." The meaning of that is, not that the sins of the whole 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 295 

world are now taken away. It is quite plain that the whole world 
is not forgiven at present. Because the whole world is not saved. 
Because God everywhere calls sinners to repentance, and the first 
work of the Spirit is to convince of sin — of the heavy burden that 
is now lying on Christless souls. Because forgiveness in the Bible 
is everywhere attached to believing. When they brought to Jesus 
a man sick of the palsy, Jesus seeing his faith, said unto him : "Son, 
be of good cheer ; thy sins are forgiven thee." Believe on the Lord 
Jesus, and thou shalt be saved. The simple truth of the Bible is, 
that Christ hath suffered and died in the stead of sinners — as a com- 
mon person in their stead; and every man that is a sinner hath a 
right to come. 

Christ is quite sufficient for all, and I would prove it by this 
argument: If he was sufficient for one sinner, then he must be suf- 
ficient for all. The great difficulty with God (I speak as a man) 
was, not how to admit many sinners into his favor, but how to admit 
one sinner into his favor. If that difficulty has been got over in 
Jesus Christ then the whole difficulty has been got over. If one 
sinner may come unto God clothed in Christ then all sinners may. 
If one sinner may have peace with God and God be yet just and 
glorious then every sinner may have peace with him. If Christ was 
enough for Abel then he is enough for all that come after. If one 
dying thief may look to him and be saved so may every dying thief. 
If one trembling jailer may believe on Jesus and rejoice, believing, 
so may every other trembling sinner. O brethren! you may doubt 
and wrangle about whether Christ be enough for your soul but if 
you die Christless you will see that there was room enough under 
his wings but you would not. 

2. Sinners are lost not because Christ is unwilling to save all. 
The whole Bible shows that Christ is quite willing and anxious that 
all sinners should come to him. The city of refuge in the Old 
Testament was a type of Christ; and you remember that its gates 
were open by night and by day. The arms of Christ were nailed 
wide open when he hung upon the cross ; and this was a figure of 
his wide willingness to save all, as he said : "I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto me." But though his arms were 
firmly nailed they are more firmly nailed wide open now by his love 
and compassion for perishing sinners than ever they were nailed 
to the tree. 

There is no unwillingness in the heart of Jesus Christ. When 
people are willing and anxious about something, they do everything 
that lies in their power to bring it to pass. So did Jesus Christ: 
"What could have been done more for my vineyard, that I have not 
done in it?" But if they are very anxious they will attempt it 
again and again. So did Jesus Christ: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
how often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathereth 



296 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

her chickens under her wings, and ye would not !" But if they are 
still more anxious they will be grieved if they are disappointed. So 
was Jesus Christ : "When he came near, he beheld the city, and wept 
over it." But if they are very anxious they will suffer pain rather 
than lose their object. So did Jesus Christ: The good Shepherd 
gave his Hfe for the sheep. Ah ! dear brethren, if you perish, it is 
not because Jesus wishes you to perish. 

A word to anxious souls. How strange it is that anxious souls 
do most of all doubt the willingness of Christ to be their Saviour, 
yet these should least of all doubt him. If he is a wilHng Saviour 
to any, oh, surely he is a willing Saviour to a weary soul ! Remem- 
ber the blind beggar of Jericho. He was in your case, blind and 
helpless, and he cried, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon 
me." And when the crowd bade him hold his peace he cried so 
much the more. Was Jesus unwilling to be that beggar's Saviour? 
He stood still, and commanded him to be brought, and said: "Thy 
faith hath made thee whole." He is the same willing Saviour still. 
Cry after him ; and though the world may bid you hold your peace, 
cry after him just so much the more. 

A word to careless souls : You say Christ may be a willing Saviour 
to others, but surely not to you. Oh, yes ! he is quite willing for you 
too. See him sitting by the well of Samaria, convincing one poor 
sinful woman of her sins, and leading her to himself. He is the 
same Saviour towards you this day. If you do perish, it is not be- 
cause Christ is unwilling. He wills all men to be saved and to come 
to the knowledge of the truth. He pleads with you and says : "Turn 
ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" 

II. True reasons why men do not come to Jesus Christ. It is 
because they will not come. The reason is not in Christ, but in 
themselves. 

1. Ignorance of Jesus Christ is one reason why sinners do not 
come to him. So it was with the Jews. They being ignorant of 
God's righteousness and going about to establish their own right- 
eousness, would not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. 
And so it is with many sinners amongst us. They will not come to 
Jesus Christ because they do not know him. It is quite amazing the 
great ignorance which exists in the midst of us. Some who have 
lived under the preached Word for years yet do not know who 
Jesus Christ is. He is an utter stranger to them. Some do not 
know from whence he came, or whither he has gone, or who sent 
him into the world, or why he came, and why he suffered and obeyed. 
Many more have no personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. They 
have had no revelation of Christ made to them. They are ignorant 
of his beauty and fitness to their own case as a Saviour; and there- 
fore they will not come to Christ to have life. In a shower of rain, 
you would not turn aside into a shelter unless you knew that there 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 297 

was a shelter there. Though you had lived at the time of the flood, 
if you lived in complete ignorance of the ark, it is plain you would 
not have fled to it; or even if you had known it and seen it and 
heard of it, yet if you did not know the use of it you would never 
have fled to it. So is it with sinners now. Many do not know 
about Jesus Christ though he is the only ark; and therefore they 
will not come to him. Many know something about Jesus Christ 
but they do not know the use of him to their perishing souls; and 
so they also will not come to Christ to have life. 

Do not live in ignorance of him, dear souls, I .beseech you. 
Seek for him as for silver, yea, search for him as for hid treasures. 
Do not say you are too old to learn. If the Spirit be your teacher 
he can make it quite easy. He can take of the things of Christ, and 
show them unto you. Do not say you are too young to learn. Hap- 
piest they who know him soonest! Happy lambs, that are soon 
gathered into the Saviour's bosom! 

2. Another reason why sinners do not come to Christ is that they 
have no sense that they need him. If you had slain a man but had 
no sense that the blood-avenger was pursuing you, you would not 
flee to the city of refuge. If your vessel was sinking but you did 
not perceive it, you would not get into the life-boat. If you were 
sick and dying but had no sense of it, you would not send for the 
physician. Just so if you have no sense of being under the wrath of 
God and exposed to hell, you will not come to Christ that you may 
have life. If you look around, you will see that the most of men 
have no feeling of anxiety about their souls. You will find men 
anxious about their families; about their money or their goods; 
about their character in the world; but, ah! why so few come to 
Jesus Christ? I answer. Because so few are anxious about their 
souls. Now, if a man be never awakened to flee from wrath it is 
plain and certain that he will never come to Jesus Christ. The 
three thousand were pricked in their hearts and then inquired after 
Christ. The jailer trembled for his soul and then was brought to 
rejoice in Christ Jesus. But no one was ever brought to Christ 
without being convinced of sin. 

Careless persons, you should seek these convictions; you should 
cry to God for them; you should try to get your heart made alive 
to the sadness of your natural condition; for if you are never 
awakened you will never come to Jesus Christ; you will never be 
saved. 

Anxious persons, you should seek to keep up these convictions. 
They are easily lost. You should cry to God to make them deeper 
in your heart. If you lose them they may never come back. You 
may become another Lot's wife — a pillar of salt. If you lose them 
you will never come to Christ, and never be saved. 

3. A third reason why sinners do not come to Christ is that the 



298 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

heart rises against him. Many are brought in some measure to a 
sense of their sin and lost condition, who yet cannot be persuaded 
to come to Jesus Christ. It is not anything in Christ that prevents 
them — it is something that rises up in their own hearts. Christ is 
quite open — he is a door which no man can shut; and they would 
fain be at rest in him, and yet their proud hearts rise up against 
him. 

There may be two reasons for this : ( 1 ) Perhaps your anxiety 
has set you upon establishing your own righteousness; and, there- 
fore, you are too proud to come to Jesus Christ. This was the way 
with the Jews. They were not only ignorant of God's righteous- 
ness, but they went about to establish their own righteousness ; and, 
therefore, they would not submit to the righteousness of God. Per- 
haps you thought when you were first awakened that you would 
soon find your way to peace. You thought by tears and prayers 
and amendment of your life to blot out past sin. You have been 
making a false Christ to yourself, and that is the reason you do not 
like the true Christ; and Christ says of you: "Ye will not come to 
me that ye might have life." To come to Christ, you would need to 
forsake your own righteousness — to confess that your wisdom is 
folly — to lie down empty and vile and without praise, and to consent 
that Jesus Christ shall have all the praise; but your proud, self- 
flattering heart rises against this ; and this is the reason you perish ; 
"You will not come to me, that you might have life." (2) Another 
way in which anxious souls keep away from Christ is this: You 
have been shaken off from all dependence on your own repentance 
or prayers or amendment to make you righteous in the sight of 
God. You have laid you down in the dust and confessed that if 
ever you are to be justified it must be through the obedience and 
sufferings of the Son of God. Now, you have lain so long thus 
emptied that you think Jesus Christ should have been revealed to 
you by this time. In a word, you have been humbling yourself to 
make yourself worthy of Jesus Christ. Alas ! this is a still prouder 
thought than the one before. You are not seeking to buy forgive- 
ness from God by your humblings and by your tears, but you are 
seeking to buy Christ from God by these humblings. You think 
that your humblings and tears deserve Christ; so that you have 
been attempting to buy that which buys forgiveness. This is a deep 
snare of the devil which hinders many anxious souls from coming 
to Jesus Christ without money and without price. 

There is reason to think that many souls perish in this way. They 
fulfill this sad word of Christ; "Ye will not come to me, that ye 
might have life." I would leave two directions with anxious souls. 
(1) You must be made willing to come to Jesus Christ, if you 
would be saved. You cannot be saved against your will. Some 
people have hopes that they will be lifted into Christ against their 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 299 

will. This IS impossible. Noah was not lifted into the ark, but 
God said: "Come in." So Christ's people are a willing people. 
They come willingly, with all their heart and soul. Not only do 
they flee willingly from wrath, but they flee willingly to Jesus 
Christ; they choose to be saved by him rather than any other way. 
If there were ten thousand other saviours, they would still choose 
Christ; for he is the chief est among ten thousand, and they feel it 
sweetest and best to be nothing and have nothing that Christ may 
be all in all. (2) God only can bend your will to come to Jesus 
Christ: "No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 
"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me 
draw him." It is God that must beat down all your proud imagina- 
tions. It is he that must reveal your guilt and nakedness. He must 
make you feel the emptiness and sin of all your self-righteousness. 
He must reveal the beauty of Christ unto you, his comeliness, his 
desirableness. He must convince you that it is sweetest to have no 
praise, and to let Jesus have the whole. Oh ! seek the teaching of 
God. The teaching of man is a mere dream, if you have not the 
teaching of God. Cry night and day for the inward teaching of the 
Spirit. "Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of 
the Father, cometh unto me;" and, "Him that cometh unto me I 
will in no wise cast out." 

III. The sinfulness of not coming to Jesus Christ. 

The words of Jesus are full of pathos — enough to break the 
proudest heart : "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." 

1. The greatness of the Saviour shows the sinfulness of not 
coming to him. He is the eternal Son of God, whom sinners are 
despising. John bore witness of him; his miracles bore witness to 
him; his Father bore witness of him; the Scriptures on every page 
testify of him ; yet ye will not come to him that ye might have life. 
It is the Son of God that hath undertaken the doing and dying in 
the stead of sinners ; and yet you, a trembling sinner, will not honor 
him so much as to trust your soul upon his finished work. Ah! 
how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? 

2. The loveliness of the Saviour shows the sin of not coming to 
him. Methinks there is a touch of heaven's melody in these words : 
"Ye will not come to me." I know not whether they more express 
the high indignation of an insulted Saviour or the tender compas- 
sion of him that wept upon the Mount of Olives over Jerusalem. 
It is as if he said ; I have left the bosom of the Father to suffer and 
bleed and die for sinners, even the chief ; yet, O sinner ! ye will not 
come unto me. I have sought the lost sheep over mountain and 
hill; I have stretched out my hands all the day to the gainsaying 
and disobedient; I have cried after sinners and wept over sinners; 
and yet ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Ah ! dear 
brethren, if sin against love be the blackest sin under the blue vault 



300 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

of heaven, this is your sin, because ye trample under foot the blood 
of the Son of God and do despite unto the gentle Spirit of grace. 

3. The very anxiety of some sinners increases their sin. Some 
sinners are very anxious about their souls yet will not come to 
Jesus Christ. They are in search of a saviour, but they will not 
have Jesus Christ. Are there not some of you who would do any- 
thing else to be saved: "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands 
of rams, or with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give 
my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the 
sin of my soul?" If we would bid you pray and weep, you would 
do that; if we would bid you fast and use the shirt of hair, you 
would do that ; if we would bid you afflict your soul and body, and 
make pilgrimage to the Holy Land, you would do that ; if we would 
bid you live as monks and nuns, you would do that, as thousands 
are doing this day ; but when we say, Come to Christ, ah ! you will 
not do that. Ah ! proud, sinful, self-ruining heart, you would choose 
any balm but the Balm of Gilead, any saviour but the Son of God. 

Oh ! that these words of the sweet Saviour, whom you thus de- 
spise, would pierce to the very bottom of your soul. "Ye will not 
come to me, that ye might have life." 



SIN LAID ON JESUS 

By Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon 
(Born June 19, 1834) 

Text: '*AU we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every 
one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
us all'' Isaiah 53 : 6. 

The verse opens with a confession of sin common, to all the per- 
sons intended in the verse. "We have turned every one to his own 
way" in a confession importing that each man had sinned against 
light peculiar to himself, or sinned with an aggravation which he at 
least could not perceive in his fellow. This confession being thus 
general and particular has many other traits of excellence about it 
of which we cannot just now speak. It is very unreserved. You 
will observe that there is not a single syllable by way of excuse ; there 
is not a word to detract from the force of the confession. It is, 
moreover, singularly thoughtful, for thoughtless persons do not use 
a metaphor so appropriate as the text : "All we like sheep have gone 
astray," like a creature wise enough to find the gap in the hedge by 
which to escape, but so silly as to have no propensity or desire to 
return to the place from which it had perversely wandered. I like 
the confession of the text because it is a giving up of all pleas 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 301 

of self-righteousness. It is the declaration of a body of men who 
are guilty, consciously guilty ; guilty with aggravations, guilty with- 
out excuse; and here they all stand with their weapons of rebellion 
broken in pieces, saying unanimously, "All we like sheep have gone 
astray ; we have turned every one to his own way/' 

I hear no dolorous wailings attending this confession of sin; for 
the next sentence makes it almost a song. *'The Lord hath laid on 
him the iniquity of us all." It is the most grievous sentence of the 
three ; but it is the most charming and most full of comfort. Strange 
is it that where misery was concentrated mercy reigned, and where 
sorrow reached her climax there is it that a weary soul finds sweet- 
est rest. The Saviour bruised is the healing of bruised hearts. 

I want now to draw the hearts of all who feel the confession to 
the blessed doctrine set forth in the text : the Lord hath laid on 
Christ the iniquity of us all. 

We shall take the text first by way of exposition; then by way 
of application; and we shall conclude with serious, and I hope 
profitable, contemplation. 

I. First, let us consider the text by way of exposition. 

1. It may be well to give the marginal translation of the text, 
"Jehovah hath made to meet on him the iniquity of us all." The 
first thought that demands notice is the meeting of sin. Sin I may 
compare to the rays of some evil sun. God, as it were, holds up a 
burning glass, and concentrates all the scattered rays in a focus upon 
Christ. That seems to be the thought of the text, "The Lord hath 
focused upon him the iniquity of us all." Or take the text in our 
own version, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;" 
put upon him, as a burden is laid upon a man's back, all the burdens 
of all his people; put upon his head, as the high priest of old laid 
upon the scapegoat all the sin of the beloved ones, that he might 
bear them in his own person. The two translations you see are 
perfectly consistent; all sins are made to meet, and then having 
met together and been tied up in one crushing load the whole burden 
is laid upon him. 

2. The second thought is that sin was made to meet upon the 
suffering person of the innocent substitute. I have said "the suf- 
fering person" because the connection of the text requires it. "He 
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his 
stripes we are healed." It is in connection with this, and as an ex- 
planation of all his grief, that it is added, "The Lord hath laid on 
him the iniquity of us all." The Lord Jesus Christ would have been 
incapable of receiving the sin of all his people as their substitute 
had he been himself a sinner : but he was, as to his own divine na- 
ture, worthy to be hymned as "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of 
Sabaoth;" and, as to his human nature, he was by miraculous con- 



302 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

ception free from all original sin, and in the holiness of his life he 
was such that he was the spotless Lamb of God, without spot, or 
wrinkle, or any such thing, and therefore he was on all accounts 
capable of standing in the room, place, and stead of sinful men. 

3. It has been asked, Was it just that sin should thus be laid 
upon Christ? Our reply is fourfold. We believe it was rightly so, 
first, because it was the act of him who must do right, for "the 
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Remember, more- 
over, that Jesus Christ voluntarily took this sin upon himself. It 
was not forced upon him. 

But I would have you remember, beloved, that there was a re- 
lationship between our Lord and his people, which is too often for- 
gotten, but which rendered it natural that he should bear the sin 
of his people. Why does the text speak of our sinning like sheep? 
I think it is because it would call to our recollection that Christ is 
our Shepherd. Yet there is a fourth consideration that may re- 
move the difficulty of sin being laid upon Christ. It is not only that 
God laid it there, that Jesus voluntarily took it, and moreover was 
in such a union with his church that it was natural that he should 
take it, but you must remember that this plan of salvation is pre- 
cisely similar to the method of our ruin. If we grant the fall, — and 
we must grant the fact, however we may dislike the principle, — we 
cannot think it unjust that God should give us a plan of salvation 
based upon the same principle of federal headship. At any rate we, 
accepting the principle of the federal headship in the fall, joyfully 
receive it as to the restoration of Christ Jesus. It seems right, then, 
on these four grounds, that the Lord should make the sins of all 
his people to meet upon Christ. 

4. I beg you to observe in the fourth place, that laying upon 
Christ brought upon him all the consequences connected with it. 
God cannot look where there is sin with any pleasure, and though 
as far as Jesus is personally concerned, he is the Father's beloved 
Son in whom he is well pleased ; yet when he saw sin laid upon his 
Son, he made that Son cry, "My God ! my God ! why hast thou for- 
saken me?" To crown all there came death itself; death is the 
punishment for sin. "He became obedient to death, even to the 
death of the cross." 

II. Let us come briefly to the application. 

A friend now puts a question to you. There is a countless com- 
pany whose sins the Lord Jesus bore ; did he bear yours ? Do you 
wish to have an answer? Are you unable to give one? Let me 
read this verse to you and see if you can join in it. I do not mean 
join in it saying, "That is true," but feeling that it is true in your 
own soul. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned 
every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the 
iniquity of us all." If there be in you this morning a penitential 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 303 

confession which leads you to acknowledge that you have erred 
and strayed like a lost sheep, if there be in you a personal sense 
of sin which makes you feel that you have turned to your own way, 
and if now you can trust in Jesus, then the Lord hath laid on him 
your iniquity. 

IIL Now consecrate a few minutes to hallowed contemplation. 

You do not want talk, you want thought: I will give you four 
things to think of. 

L The first is the astounding mass of sin that must have been 
laid on Christ. All the sins against light and knowledge, sins against 
law and gospel, week-day sins, Sabbath sins, hand sins, lip sins, 
heart sins, sins against the Father, sins against the Son, sins against 
the Holy Ghost, sins of all shapes, all laid upon him ; can you get the 
thought now? 

2. The next subject I offer you for contemplation is this, the 
amazing love of Jesus which brought him to all this. Remember 
Paul's way of putting it, "Scarcely for a righteous (or strictly just) 
man will one die; peradventure for a good (or benevolent) man one 
might even dare to die ; but God commendeth his love towards us in 
that, while we were yet sinners, in due time, Christ died for the 
ungodly." When Christ has renewed us by his Spirit, there may be 
a temptation to imagine that some excellency in us won the Saviour's 
heart, but, my brethren, you must understand that Christ died for 
us while we were yet sinners. 

3. Wonder of wonders that I need another minute to set you 
thinking on another subject, the matchless security which this plan 
of salvation offers. I do not see in what point that man is vulner- 
able who can feel and know that Christ has borne his sin. How 
grandly does the apostle put it ! It seems to me as if he never was 
worked up by the Holy Spirit to such a pitch of eloquence as when 
speaking about the death and resurrection of the Saviour, he pro- 
pounds that splendid question, "Who shall lay anything to the 
charge of God's elect?" There, where eternal justice sits upon a 
flaming throne, the apostle gazes with eye undimmed into the in- 
effable splendor, and though some one seems to say, "The Judge 
will condemn," he replied, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of 
God's elect? It is God that justifieth." 

4. Lastly, I desire to give you as a subject for contemplation, and 
I pray you do not forget it, this question : What then are the claims 
of Jesus Christ upon you and upon me? Napoleon singularly 
enough had power to get the hearts of men twisted and twined about 
him ; when he was in his wars there were many of his captains and 
even of his private soldiers, who not only marched with the quick 
obedience of a soldier wherever they were bidden, but who felt an 
enthusiasm for him. Have you never heard of him who threw him- 
self in the way of the shot to receive it in his bosom to save the 



304 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

Emperor? No obedience, no law could have required that of him, 
but enthusiastic love moved him to it; and it is such enthusiasm 
that my Master deserves in the very highest degree from us. What 
shall I do for my Master? What shall I do for my Lord? How- 
shall I set him forth? My brethren and sisters, my highest aim 
before God, next to the conversion of the unconverted among you, 
is this, that you who do love Christ may really love him and act 
as if you did. Contribute of your substance to the common work 
of the church, and do that constantly, and as a matter of delight. 
Do something for yourself, speak for Christ yourself, have some 
work in hand on your own account. O Christian, by the blood of 
Jesus devote yourself to him again! In the old Roman battles it 
sometimes happened that the strife seemed dubious, and a captain 
inspired by superstitious patriotism would stand upon his sword 
and devote himself to destruction for the good of his country, and 
then, according to those old legends, the battle always turned. Now, 
men and brethren, sisters, every one of you who have tasted that 
the Lord is gracious, devote yourselves this day to live, to die, to 
spend, and to be spent for King Jesus. 



FAITH 
By Rev. A. B. Earle, D.D. 
Text : "Have faith in Godf Mark 11 : 22. 

Faith is a persuasion of the mind, resting upon evidence. Faith 
must have a basis to rest upon ; we cannot have faith in the absence 
of evidence. God never asks any one to believe anything without 
furnishing a basis for that belief. Does he ask us to believe in his 
own existence, he opens the great volume of nature, and bids us look 
up. Does he require us to receive the Scriptures as divinely in- 
spired, they bear in themselves the evidence of their divine origin. 
Does he bid us come to him in prayer, he furnishes us with daily 
answers to prayer. 

Some persons . have faith in appearances ; that is, they believe they 
are going to have a revival of religion because there is a general 
solemnity and seriousness in the community. This is not faith in 
God, but in appearances. Withdraw these indications, and faith 
has nothing to rest upon. To true faith in God the darkness and the 
light are both alike. 

We hear others say they have faith to believe they would have a 
glorious revival could they secure the labors of a favorite minister. 
This is faith in a minister or measure — not in God. Get your minis- 
ter, if in your judgment he would do you good, but let your faith 
anchor in God and his promises. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 305 

As faith must have a basis to rest upon, let us see what ground 
we have to expect an immediate revival of religion, and souls to be 
converted to God, if we go on with this meeting, and preach, and 
pray, and exhort, and sing, and visit. 

I. God appointed these means to effect this end. 

God, who cannot make a mistake, and who knows all about the 
difficulties to be overcome in a dark, cold time, bids us go and 
preach, pray, exhort, and sing in simple faith, and he will bless. 

No matter how dark, or cold, or dead, — we are to look for an im- 
mediate outpouring of the Spirit, in the use of these means. I have 
come to believe that God means just what he says in his Word, and 
I expect an outpouring of the Spirit whenever and wherever the 
means are used in faith. 

If God had told me to go into your graveyard and sing "Old 
Hundred" among the graves, and that by this means the dead would 
be raised, I would come to one and another of you, and ask if you 
had any friends in that graveyard ; and if so, to get ready to receive 
them — they were going to be raised. Perhaps you would ask me, 
"Can you raise the dead?" I should answer, *'Not at all; but God 
has sent me to sing 'Old Hundred' among the graves, and says 
through this means he will raise the dead." I should expect to see 
the graves open, and the dead come forth. My faith would not 
rest in any power of yours or mine, but in the fact that God ap- 
pointed this means to effect this end. 

Just so when Jesus says, "Go preach my word, and, lo ! I am with 
you, and will pour out my Spirit upon you," we should expect him 
to do it. I do expect it ; I have not one fear but that we shall have 
a glorious result, if we use these means in faith in this place. 

Moses had faith in God, when he lifted the brazen serpent to the 
bitten Israelites; his faith was not in the piece of brass, nor in his 
own power to heal, but in the fact that God had appointed that piece 
of brass thereby to make his power known. As Moses lifted that 
piece of brass in the wilderness, so must Jesus be lifted to the view 
of lost men. 

We can have faith in God, in using these means, then, because he 
appointed them to effect this end. 

II. Another strong ground for faith in God, in using these 
means, to expect an immediate revival of religion, is, that God's 
heart and hand are in this work. 

God felt so deeply for the salvation of souls, before we cared any- 
thing about it, that he gave his own Son to die for them. 

God sees the end from the beginning, and tries no experiment — 
has all necessary resources of providence and grace; so that we can 
follow where he leads, with unwavering faith. 

How often does some providence occur that is made the means 
of a powerful work of grace. In one part of Maine, nine churches 



3o6 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

united in asking me to assist them in a series of union meetings; 
but before I reached the place, death had taken one of the pastors, 
almost instantly, out of the world. This pastor had drawn off the 
names of more than twenty persons, whom he was going to seek, 
at once, to bring to the Saviour. One day, with these names in his 
pocket, he went to the post-office, and died before reaching his home 
again. The effect was so great upon his congregation and the com- 
munity, that it was necessary to commence meetings at once; and, 
when I reached the place, more than a hundred persons were anx- 
ious about their souls. 

While I was holding a series of m.eetings in , N. Y., one 

evening a lady was passing near the church door, and one of the 
sisters asked her to come in, saying, "We are having good meetings 
here; quite a revival has commenced, and I would like to have you 
attend some of these interesting services." The lady replied, *'Do 
you think I would go into such a meeting — a revival meeting ? No, 
never!" This lady went on home, scorning the meeting and re- 
ligion. A day or two after this she was passing that church door 
again while the congregation were singing one of their sweet re- 
vival hymns. The notes went through the open door and reached 
her ear. She paused, and said, "That sounds good." The same 
sister who had invited her in before, again at the door, said "Come 
in and hear more." She replied, "I am too proud to sit down in a 
meeting-house, unless I can own a seat." The sister told her she 
might have their seat, which could be emptied for her at once. This 
was done, and the lady spent the rest of the evening in our meeting ; 
her heart was deeply moved. Within one short week this lady and 
her husband were both rejoicing in a Saviour's love. Very soon 
both united with that church. So we see that God here blessed the 
songs of praise to the salvation of souls. 

One of the greatest victories ever won by Jehoshaphat was won 
by singing. "And when he had consulted with the people, he ap- 
pointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of 
holiness as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the 
Lord; for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to 
sing and praise, . . . (their enemies) were smitten." 2 Chron. 
20:21, 22. 

We find, then, as in all ages, God blessed his people when they 
sung his praise. 

I would urge all who desire to promote revivals of religion, and 
to lead men to JesUs, to have the best singing you can in all your 
meetings. Sing with life and spirit. God appointed singing, and 
will bless it. Have faith in God. 

How often we see a whole community moved by the power of a 
little prayer meeting. Peter was brought out of prison, while the 
church were praying in the house of Mary, the mother of John. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 307 

Let the ''nothing-wavering" prayer be offered, and it cannot 
fail. 

Have faith in God when you pray, for he appointed these means 
to effect this end. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye 
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;" but let it be 
done in faith. 

HI. God has always blessed these means, when they have been 
used in faith. None ever knew a failure, except when faith was 
lacking. 

The walls of Jericho fell down after they had been compassed 
about in faith ; yet I presume many of those who went round those 
walls, like many church members now, had no faith in God, but 
marched with those that had. 

God honors all the faith he finds in his people. I would advise all 
to use what faith they have, for in this way faith grows — it is 
strengthened by use. Just as David's faith, after he had rescued the 
lamb from the mouth of the lion, and the paw of the bear, became 
so strong he believed he could kill Goliath. 

Naaman, the Syrian, went into the Jordan to wash seven times, 
with very great unbelief (yet he must have had a little faith, or he 
would not have gone at all) ; but, after the wonderful cure, he went 
home with strong faith. He found God's word reliable. God al- 
ways blesses the use of the means he has appointed, when used in 
faith ; and he blesses in proportion to the strength of our faith. 

When Ezekiel preached to the dry bones, there was nothing re- 
markable in his sermon or manner of presenting the truth, but sim- 
ply in his faith in God. His faith did not rest in any wonderful 
skill, or power in preaching, nor in any favorable appearances, but 
in God. He would do just what God directed him to do, knowing 
that God could not make a mistake, and that he was able to do just 
as he promised. So, standing up among the bones, — dried, and 
bleached, and scattered as they were, — Ezekiel began to cry, "Dry 
bones, hear the word of the Lord ! Dry bones, live ! Dry bones, 
come together!" Power accompanied the means God appointed, 
and bone came to his fellow-bone, and they were clothed with flesh 
and sinews. But the breath of life was not yet in them. Then fol- 
lowed prayer, or calling on the wind to blow upon the slain. The 
breath of life entered into them, and there stood upon their feet an 
army of men. By this figure Ezekiel was shown how God saves 
sinners. 

As Ezekiel went among those dry bones and preached to them, 
and called on the wind to blow upon them, and they lived, so Chris- 
tians must go among wicked men, and preach and pray, and use 
the means God has appointed, in faith, and he will bless these 
means, and save souls, and build up his church. 

Perhaps some one will ask why God does not bless the labors of 



3o8 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

all his ministers, alike, in the conversion of souls. It is because 
they do not expect it. They hope God will bless their labors ; they 
pray him to do it ; they really desire it, but do not in faith, without 
wavering, expect it. Faith is as necessary here, as is fire to produce 
heat. Persons may perish in the cold surrounded with good fuel, 
for the want of fire to kindle it ; so men can go down to death under 
the ablest presentation of truth, just for the want of faith in God 
on the part of the preacher and those that hear. So important is 
faith in God, that Jesus said to the anxious around him, "Only be- 
lieve." *'A11 things are possible to him that believeth." 

Let me mention an incident or two that have greatly strengthened 
my faith. A few j'^ears ago, in a ministers' conference, the text for 
criticism was, "Is not the set time to favor Zion come?" Among 
other questions raised, was this : "Is it perfectly safe for a minister 
to commence a series of meetings in a church or community where 
there are no indications of a revival of religion ? Ought he to go to 
work expecting an immediate outpouring of the Spirit?" I had 
just begun, as it were, to believe God, and take him at his word, 
and, with several others, said, "It is safe." In a few days I com- 
menced a series of meetings in a little church of about twenty 
members, who were very cold and dead, and much divided — the only 
green spot being a little prayer-meeting, kept up by two or three 
sisters. I preached the first evening, and closed the meeting at eight 
o'clock. There was not one to speak or pray. I succeeded the next 
evening in getting one brother to say a few words, and closed again 
about eight o'clock, but said to the people, "We will go on with the 
meeting." All around looked dark, but to the eye of faith the dark- 
ness and the light are both alike. 

The next morning I rode six miles, to a minister's study, to get 
him to pray with and for me. We both kneeled at the same 
chair and prayed, feeling and believing that faith in God could not 
be disappointed. I went back, and said to that little church, "If 
you can just make out to board me, I will stay with you until God 
opens the windows of heaven. God has promised to bless these 
means, and I believe he will." I trusted it all to Jesus, and went to 
work ; and within ten days there were so many anxious souls, that 
I met one hundred and fifty of them at a time at an inquiry meeting, 
while Christians were praying in another house of worship. A 
powerful work of grace followed, and I think several hundred souls 
were led to Jesus. This greatly strengthened my faith in God. 

On another occasion I commenced a meeting near Boston, and 
preached the first evening on this same subject — Faith in God. We 
had a pleasant evening and a large assembly. Everything seemed 
favorable. I told the congregation that I believed we should have 
a great work, and they must provide seats for the aisles of the meet- 
ing-house. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 309 

The very next day a terrible snow-storm came on, so that we 
were shut out of the meeting-house and in our homes. For six 
successive days I preached in a private parlor at my boarding-place 
(which was only a few rods from the church) to ten or fifteen 
persons. This was a trial of my faith ; yet I knew God was able to 
fulfill his promises, and I believed he would. 

About the seventh day, the storm being over, we came together 
again in the meeting-house. On the first or second evening one 
hundred men and women came forward for prayer, deeply convicted. 
While they were shut up at home, the Spirit of God had been 
at work upon their hearts. God had given a voice to the howling 
winds, and moved the hearts of his people just as well as though they 
had gathered in his house. A great work followed, and many pre- 
cious souls were brought to Jesus. 

With these and many other tests of God's promises, I have come 
to believe and trust him, so that I can follow where he leads. 

Let me ask you all to go home from this meeting, to preach, and 
pray, and sing, and visit, in faith. Do all you can; speak to all 
of Jesus ; but rely alone on God, asking and expecting great things. 



THE GREAT SALVATION 

By Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D. 
(Born January 7, 1832) 

Text: *'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" 
Hebrews 2 : 3. 

I stand before you to-night borne down with two great and all- 
absorbing desires : one, to get to heaven myself ; the other, to take 
all these people along with me. Who knows but God may hear 
my prayer, and that all swept by the circle of those walls shall within 
one hour be inclosed in the arms of a pardoning Jesus? It is not 
time for argument, for you mentally accept all these truths. It 
is no time for philosophy, for it is your hearts we want, and not 
your heads. It is no time for poetry, for tulips and daffodils will 
not satisfy those who are famishing for bread. The oft-repeated 
prayer of Rowland Hill, in the midst of his sermon, is my prayer at 
the beginning : "Master, help !" While I stand here, the audience 
vanishes from my vision, and it is the world's great trial-day, and 
the books are opened. O my Saviour ! if I do not speak as I ought, 
what will become of me? If these people do not hear as they ought, 
what will become of them? ''How shall we escape, if we neglect 
so great salvation?" 

1. Paul was right when he called it great. The most stupendous 



3IO THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

undertaking since God existed, was the hoisting of this world out of 
ruin. It had made shipwreck — going down with all hands on board. 
From none of the surrounding worlds did a life-boat push out. 
The Lord God Almighty rose up, and bringing into action all the 
omniscience, and omnipotence, and majesty, and loving-kindness of 
his nature, he set about the redemption of the world. John Fred- 
erick Oberlin put off all earthly comfort to redeem a barren district 
of France from poverty and ignorance, with his own pickaxe begin- 
ning the building of a high-road from Ban de la Roche up to the 
city of Strasburg. But here was a highway to be constructed from 
the squalor of earth to the heights of heaven. Clarkson pleaded 
before the English Parliament and the Russian emperor, against 
the slave-trade. But here was the question of deliverance for a 
hundred thousand millions of bondmen. Ay ! it was the pounding 
off of an iron chain from the neck of a captive world. 

I think it was the greatest and most absorbing thought of God's 
lifetime. I do not think that there was anything in all the ages 
of the past, or that there will be in all the ages of the future, any- 
thing to equal it. The masterpiece of eternity! There were so 
many difficulties to be overcome! There were such infinite con- 
sequences to be considered ! There were such gulfs to bridge, and 
such heights to scale, and such immensities to compass! If God 
had been less than omnipotent, he would not have been strong 
enough; or less than omniscient, I do not think he would have 
been wise enough; or less loving would have been sympathetic 
enough. There might have been a God strong enough to create a 
universe, and yet too weak to do this. To create the worlds, only 
a word was necessary; but to do this work required more than a 
word. It required more than ordinary effort of a God. It required 
the dying anguish of an Only Son. Oh ! is not that which took all 
the height, and depth, and length, and immensity, and eternity, of 
his nature to achieve, worthy of being called a great salvation? 

2. Paul was right when he called this salvation great, because 
it was founded upon a great sacrifice. When Elizabeth Fry went 
into Newgate Prison to redeem the abandoned, she was told to 
lay off her purse and watch lest they be stolen, but refused, saying 
that confidence in the criminals would be one way of touching 
them. When Christ came into the prison of this world^s sin, he 
brought with him all the jewels of heavenly affection upon him. 
If a host of angels had been hurled off the battlement, they would 
not so much have been missed. It is an exciting time around an 
old homestead, the morning the son leaves home to go away; for 
they know not what will happen, or whether he will ever return. 
What a morning it must have been in heaven when Jesus left! I 
think all heaven hung around him — some asking him not to go; 



JEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 311 

some speaking to him of the perils by the way; some standing in 
silent grief at his departure ; and when the cavalcade for Bethlehem 
dashed up to the golden gate, and the cry was, "All ready!" there 
was a warm good-bye, and a rain of tears and last words and a 
scene that the oldest inhabitants of heaven remember now as though 
it were but yesterday. 

During our last war, squadrons went out, and we knew nothing 
of them until they were reported off shore, and landing amidst fiery 
assault of battle. I do not think that heaven knew for what shore 
Jesus and his cohorts were bound and when one Christmas night 
they were seen off the shores of earth, and word got back to glory 
that the crusading fleet were landing amidst storms of persecution, 
there must have been a cry of amazement in heaven. If the expe- 
dition had steered into the sun, that would have been a more bril- 
liant landing-place; or, if it had sailed into Jupiter, that would 
have been a mightier world. But no ; they chose one of the smallest 
worlds in God's astronomy — a little world, a proud world, an un- 
clean world, a defiant world, a cruel world, a dying world, a dead 
world. Was not this salvation great in its humiliation? 

3. So also was this redemption great in its sufferings. It is 
fortunate that we can not foresee our trials. If that man who last 
week lost his property could have known for ten years that he was 
going to become bankrupt, all those ten years would have been 
shadowed with trouble. If that parent who last year lost his child 
had known for ten years previously that he would lose it, for ten 
years that parent would have been overshadowed. Qirist's suffer- 
ings were augmented by the fact that he foresaw them. For thirty- 
three years he was dying. The last horror hung over him at the 
sea-side, at the wedding, and everywhere. He knew that every 
pulse's beating took him nearer to the last throb of anguish. He 
saw the walls shutting in around him, the circle of fire contracting, 
the vise screwing up. When he flew away from Herod, he knew 
that at last he would be captured. He went into court knowing 
that the verdict would be against him. There was an upright piece 
of wood and a transverse piece of wood that hung over him by 
day and by night — the shadow of a cross. 

The final year came. It was his birthday. It was Christmas. 
He was thirty-two years old. I hear him saying, "This is my last 
year. What a thirty-two years ! Trouble all the way ! Betrayed ! 
Cast out! Poor! Full of pain! But a few more months, and I 
will go up to my death-hour. The tree is growing on which I shall 
be spiked. The hammers are forged that will some day smite me 
fast. The military are drilled for my execution." My hearers, if 
Christ's death had been a sudden surprise, it would not have been 
so awful. But it was a long-expected anguish. 



312 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

That last hour of Christ was the focus to which the woes of time 
and of eternity converged. Heaven frowned from above. Hell 
rode up from beneath. I hear the click of the hoofs of the cavalry 
troop as they ride out toward the fatal hill. I hear the buzz, and 
hum, and roar, and blasphemy of a great mob. They have cornered 
him at last! Put those women out of the way! It is no place 
for women! Do not let his mother see this! Take her away! 
This spectacle would kill her! Put out all the candles of the sky. 
The spears are sharp, and they plunge them. The heavens are 
burdened with woe, and they thunder. Unlifted darkness — save 
as a flash of lightning reveals the eye of God, peering through the 
gloom to see what they are doing with his well-beloved Son. Me- 
thinks the thrones of heaven shiver at the deed. He has been hang- 
ing there five hours and fifty minutes. What next? Whom will 
the Omnipotent Sufferer first consume with his curse ? Will he not 
take his right hand from the nail, and hurl everlasting fury upon 
his crucifiers ? Wait a moment. Listen ! I am sure he will speak ! 
Yes, he speaks : "Father, forgive them. They know not what they 
do." 

This was death at the stake; but the fires kindled around it were 
the flames of the world's hatred, inwrapped with the fiercer fires of 
eternal woe — wreathing feet, hands, eyes, brain, soul, in the worst 
horror that ever shuddered through God's universe. Was not this 
salvation great in its suffering? 

4. This redemption was also great in its pardon. It takes all the 
sins of a life, and cuts them off with one stroke, so that all the 
crimes the worst man ever committed, as soon as he takes hold of 
this salvation, are gone at once, utterly and forever. Gone, so that 
you can not find them. Gone, so that the light of the judgment-day 
can not discover them. Says some one, "Do you mean to say that 
I could have that done for me?" I answer, "Yes!" "When?" 
Now ! Though you had committed fifty murders, though your 
life were rotten with debauchery, though you had gone through 
the whole catalogue of crimes, I announce full pardon for all your 
sins the nioment you take hold of this salvation. 

5. This redemption is great in its final deliverance. There is a 
hell. Rationalism rules it out; but there is where our modern es- 
sayists and the Bible differ. People say there ought not to be a 
hell; but there is where modern theologians and the Lord God Al- 
mighty differ. I am one of those few benighted mortals in this 
day who take the whole Bible. "What! you do not believe every- 
thing in it?" Everything! Absolutely everything! 'What! that 
about the serpent in Eden? and the sun standing still? and the 
whale swallowed Jonah?" Everything! I believe it all as much 
as I do in my own existence. "Well, then, you can not have read 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 313 

the arguments on the other side." Yes, I have; read them day 
and night; read them by the year; read every word that Tom 
Paine, or Theodore Parker, or Renan ever wrote on the subject; 
read them from the title-page to the last word, of the last line, of 
the last page, of the last book ; read them until it is only through 
the mercy of God that I did not kill my soul through the sin of 
reading them; read them until I found out that the land of skepti- 
cism is a desert, where the sands are red-hot coals, swept by the 
smothering simoon of all-consuming wretchedness; read them until 
I have found that there are two hells instead of one — the hell of 
skepticism and the hell spoken of in the Bible; and I believe in 
the last because it is the more tolerable. 

Come to my house some time at six o'clock in the evening, and 
I will show you fifty-four passages in the Bible, all positively assert- 
ing that there is such a place, and as many more implying it. If 
I do not believe God when he tells me a thing ten times, certainly 
I will when he tells it to me twenty times. If I do not believe what 
he has asserted twenty times, I will when he has told it to me forty 
times. But if I doubt him the fortieth time, certainly when he an- 
nounces a thing to me the fifty-fourth time I had better accept it. 
Paul says, "They shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord." Luke says, "There shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you 
yourself thrust out." Christ, who ought to know, says, "And these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment." It is not more certain 
that there is a city called Constantinople or Moscow than that there 
is a great metropolis of suffering ; that Satan rules over it ; that there 
are fires that can not be put out, and tears that ever fall, and groans 
that are forever uttered. When a man gets into that place, he 
never gets out. 

There may be difference of opinion about the exact nature of that 
suffering. You may, if you like, discard the old-fashioned notion 
of fire, but the Bible in many places says that the suffering is like 
fire; and if it is like fire, it is as severe as fire; and if it is as 
severe as fire, it might as well be fire. You say that it is mental 
torture, and not physical. But you know that mental torture is 
worse than physical. So the style of suffering that you believe 
in is far more intolerable than the style of suffering your fathers 
and mothers used to believe in. 

But suppose you throw overboard most of the testimony on this 
subject — is there not some slight possibility that there may be such 
a place? If there should be, and you have no preparation to escape 
it, what then ? A young woman, dying, said to her father, "Father, 
why did you not tell me there was such a place?" "What place?" 



314 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

"A hell !" He said, "Jenny, there is no such place. God is merci- 
ful. There will be no future suffering!" She said, "I know better! 
I feel it now ! I know there is such a place ! My feet are slipping 
into it this moment! I am lost! Why did you not tell me there 
was such a place?" It is the awful, stupendous, consuming, in- 
controvertible fact of the universe. 

Now, is not a salvation that keeps down the hatches so that these 
flames can not scorch us, and that muzzles these lions so that their 
teeth can not touch us, worthy of being called a great salvation? 
Every one may escape it. God never puts a man in perdition. He 
puts himself there. If you have a great fire on your farm in which 
you are consuming a large amount of rubbish, and I deliberately 
rush into it and get burned, who is to blame? Myself. God has 
told us there is a place of burning. He makes for us every possi- 
bility of escaping it. If deliberately and of our own choice we 
dash in, upon whom comes the responsibility? Answer! Your 
conscience has answered! 

6. This salvation is great in its consummation. It does not leave 
a man shivering and half starved on the outskirts of a fine city, 
but gives him citizenship in the great capital of the Almighty. The 
Bible says that one day an angel went out and measured heaven. 
He took a golden rod. I see that rod flashing in the light of the 
sun that never sets. With it the angel measures all along by the 
gates, all along by the towers, and all along by the foundations — 
a hundred miles, five hundred miles, a thousand miles, fifteen hun- 
dred miles around — so the Bible intimates. What a city! London 
and New York are villages compared with it. Though the ac- 
count be figurative, what a heaven God has ready for us! But 
that heaven spoken of in the Bible was heaven before the improve- 
ments. It is a grander place now; for the great and good souls 
of the last eighteen hundred years have gone in since then. Ex- 
cepting Jesus, the best part of our heaven has been made up within 
the last thirty years, since our friends have been going in. 

In the great park of the universe we may walk; and we shall 
want not one thing for all eternity. No sickness will pale the cheek. 
No discord will strike the ear. No shadow will darken the path, 
save under the palm-trees through which sifts the golden light of 
eternal summer. Jesus will be there ; and all the good will be there. 

land of light, and love, and joy! A land where the redeemed 
of the Lord come with songs upon their heads. A land where — 

1 fail! I break down under the thought! I can not express it! 
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into 
the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for those who 
love him." Is not a salvation that opens such a gate, and rouses 
such an anthem, and consummates such a friendship, a great salva- 
tion? 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 315 

7. Now, are you ready for the apostle's question? Are you all 
ready? In the light of this salvation — so great in its Author, so 
great in its humiliations, so great in its sacrifices, so great in its 
pardon, so great in its final deliverance, so great in its consumma- 
tions — the question bursts, crackles, and thunders upon our ears: 
*'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?'* 

No escape at all ! For the man who neglects it there is no 
possibility of excuse or rescue. Everything will plead against him. 
The waters will hiss from the fountains, and say, 'We told him of 
the living stream where he might wash all his sins away, but he 
would not come. Escape he must not!" The rocks will say, 
"We told him of a shelter and defense to which he might run and 
be saved ; but he would not come. Escape he must not !" The sun 
in the sky will say, "We told him of the light of the world and of 
the dayspring from on high but he shut his eyes to the glory. Es- 
cape he must not !" The star will say, "I pointed to his only hope — 
the Jesus of Bethlehem; but he would not look and be saved. Es- 
cape he must not!" The Bible will say, "I called him by a thou- 
sand invitations, and warned him with a thousand alarms; but he 
would not heed ; he would not listen. Escape he must not !" The 
tree of Calvary will say, "On my bloody branch I bore the fruit 
that might have fed his starving soul ; but he would not pluck it. 
Escape he must not!" The angels of God will say, "We flew to 
him on errands of mercy, and would have charmed him into life 
but he beat us back in our ministry. Escape he must not!" The 
throne of judgment will say, "I have but two sentences to give — 
that to the friends of God, and that to his rejectors. Escape he 
must not !" All the voices of the destroyed will speak out, and say, 
"We neglected it no more than he. Why should he go free when 
we are banished ? Escape he must not !" Jesus will say, "I called 
to him for many years, but he turned his back on all these wounds ; 
and by all those despised tears, and by that rejected blood. Escape 
he must not!" Then God will speak, and answer the waters, and 
the rocks, and the sun, and the stars, and the Bible, and the bloody 
tree, and the angels, and the throne of judgment, and the voice of the 
destroyed, and the plea of a rejected Christ, and with a voice that 
shall ring all through the heights, and depths, and lengths, and 
breadths of his universe, say, "Escape he shall not!" 

May the Lord God Almighty, for Jesus' sake, avert such a catas- 
trophe. Hark ! The city clock strikes nine. Thank God, it is not 
the clock of our destiny striking twelve! The day of mercy has 
not fully passed. But it is the eleventh hour, and it may be our 
last chance. If I never say another word to you, let this go forth 
as my last and dying utterance: 

Come to Jesus ! Come now ! 



3i6 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 



REPENTANCE AND RESTITUTION 

By DwiGHT L. Moody 
(Born February 5, 1837) 

Text: "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent/* Acts 
17:30. 

Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. 
Yet I believe it is one of those truths that many people little un- 
derstand at the present day. There are more people to-day in the 
mist and darkness about Repentance, Regeneration, the Atonement, 
and such-like fundamental truths, than perhaps on any other doc- 
trines. Yet from our earliest years we have heard about them. 
If I were to ask for a definition of Repentance, a great many would 
give a very strange and false idea of it. 

A man is not prepared to believe or to receive the Gospel, unless 
he is ready to repent of his sins and turn from them. Until John 
the Baptist met Christ, he had but one text, "Repent ye; for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). But if he had con- 
tinued to say this, and had stopped there without pointing the people 
to Christ the Lamb of God, he would not have accomplished much. 

When Christ came, he took up the same wilderness cry, "Repent ; 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4: 17). And when 
our Lord sent out his disciples, it was with the same message, 
"that men should repent" (Mark 6: 12). After he had been glori- 
fied, and when the Holy Ghost came down, we find Peter on the day 
of Pentecost raising the same cry, "Repent!" It was this preach- 
ing — Repent, and believe the Gospel — that wrought such marvellous 
results then. (Acts 2: 38-47). And we find that, when Paul went 
to Athens, he uttered the same' cry, "Now God commandeth all 
men, everywhere, to repent" (Acts 17:30). 

I. Before I speak of what Repentance is, let me briefly say what 
it is not. 

1. Repentance is not fear. Many people have confounded the 
two. They think they have to be alarmed and terrified; and they 
are waiting for some kind of fear to come down upon them. But 
multitudes become alarmed who do not really repent. You have 
heard of men at sea during a terrible storm. Perhaps they have 
been very profane men; but when the danger came they suddenly 
grew quiet, and began to cry to God for mercy. Yet you would 
not say they repented. When the storm had passed away, they 
went on swearing the same as before. You might think that the 
king of Egypt repented when God sent the terrible plagues upon 
him and his land. But it was not repentance at all. The moment 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 317 

God's hand was removed Pharaoh's heart was harder than ever. 
He did not turn from a single sin ; he was the same man. So that 
there was no true repentance there. 

Often, when death comes into a family, it looks as if the event 
would be sanctified to the conversion of all who are in the house. 
Yet in six months' time all may be forgotten. Some who hear me 
have perhaps passed through that experience. When God's hand 
was heavy upon them it looked as if they were going to repent ; but 
the trial has been removed — and lo and behold, the impression 
has all gone. 

2. Then again. Repentance is not feeling. I find a great many 
people are waiting for a certain kind of feeling to come. They 
would like to turn to God; but think they cannot do it until this 
feeling comes. When I was in Baltimore I used to preach every 
Sunday in the Penitentiary to nine hundred convicts. There was 
hardly a man there who did not feel miserable enough: they had 
plenty of feeling. For the first week or ten days of their imprison- 
ment many of them cried half the time. Yet, when they were re- 
leased, most of them would go right back to their old ways. The 
truth was, that they felt very bad because they had got caught; 
that was all. So you have seen a man in the time of trial show a 
good deal of feeling: but very often it is only because he has got 
into trouble; not because he has committed sin, or because his 
conscience tells him he has done evil in the sight of God. It seems 
as if the trial were going to result in true repentance; but the 
feeling too often passes away. 

3. Once again, Repentance is not fasting and afiflicting the body. 
A man may fast for weeks and months and years, and yet not 
repent of one sin. Neither is it remorse. Judas had terrible re- 
morse — enough to make him go and hang himself ; but that was not 
repentance. I believe if he had gone to his Lord, fallen on his face, 
and confessed his sin, he would have been forgiven. Instead of 
this he went to the priests, and then put an end to his life. A 
man may do all sorts of penance — but there is no true repentance 
in that. Put that down in your mind. You cannot meet the claims 
of God by ofifering the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul. 
Away with such a delusion ! 

4. Repentance is not conviction of sin. That may sound strange 
to some. I have seen men under such deep conviction of sin that 
they could not sleep at night; they could not enjoy a single meal. 
They went on for months in this state ; and yet they were not con- 
verted; they did not truly repent. Do not confound conviction 
of sin with Repentance. 

5. Neither is praying Repentance. That too may sound strange. 
Many people, when they become anxious about their soul's salva- 
tion, say, "I will pray, and read the Bible ;" and they think that will 



3i8 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

bring about the desired effect. But it will not do it. You may read 
the Bible and cry to God a great deal, and yet never repent. Many 
people cry loudly to God, and yet do not repent. 

6. Another thing: it is not breaking off some one sin. A great 
many people make that mistake. A man who has been a drunkard 
signs the pledge, and stops drinking. Breaking off one sin is not 
Repentance. Forsaking one vice is like breaking off one limb of a 
tree, when the whole tree has to come down. A profane man 
stops swearing ; very good : but if he does not break off from every 
sin it is not Repentance — it is not the work of God in the soul. 
When God works he hews down the whole tree. He wants to 
have a man turn from every sin. Supposing I am in a vessel out 
at sea, and I find the ship leaks in three or four places. I may go 
and stop up one hole ; yet down goes the vessel. Or suppose I am 
wounded in three or four places, and I get a remedy for one wound ; 
if the other two or three wounds are neglected, my life will soon 
be gone. True Repentance is not merely breaking off this or that 
particular sin. 

II. Well then, you will ask, what is Repentance ? I will give you 
a good definition : it is "right about face !" In the Irish language the 
word "Repentance" means even more than "right about face!" 
It implies that a man who has been walking in one direction has 
not only faced about, but is actually walking in an exactly contrary 
direction. "Turn ye, turn ye ; for why will ye die ?" A man may 
have little feeling or much feeling; but if he does not turn away 
from sin, God will not have mercy on him. Repentance has also 
been described as "a change of mind." For instance, there is the 
parable told by Christ: "A certain man had two sons; and he 
came to the first, and said. Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. 
He answered and said, I will not" (Matt 21:28, 29). After he 
had said "I will not" he thought over it, and changed his mind. 
Perhaps he may have said to himself, "I did not speak very respect- 
fully to my father. He asked me to go and work, and I told him 
I would not go. I think I was wrong." But suppose he had only 
said this, and still had not gone he would not have repented. He 
was not only convinced that he was wrong; but he went off into 
the fields, hoeing, or mowing or whatever it was. That is Christ's 
definition of repentance. If a man says, "By the grace of God I 
will forsake my sin, and do his will," that is Repentance — a turning 
right about. 

Some one has said, man is born with his face turned away from 
God. When he truly repents he is turned right around towards 
God; he leaves his old life. 

Can a man at once repent? Certainly he can. It does not take 
a long while to turn around. It does not take a man six months 
to change his mind. There was a vessel that went down some time 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 319 

ago on the Newfoundland coast. As she was bearing towards the 
shore, there was a moment when the captain could have given orders 
to reverse the engines and turn back. If the engines had been 
reversed then, the ship would have been saved. But there was a 
moment when it was too late. So there is a moment, I believe, in 
every man's life when he can halt and say, "By the grace of God 
I will go no further towards death and ruin. I repent of my sins 
and turn from them." You may say you have not got feeling 
enough; but if you are convinced that you are on the wrong road, 
turn right about, and say, "I will no longer go on in the way of 
rebellion and sin as I have done." 

Just then, when you are willing to turn towards God, salvation 
may be yours. 

I find that every case of conversion recorded in the Bible was 
instantaneous. Repentance and faith came very suddenly. The mo- 
ment a man made up his mind, God gave him the power. God 
does not ask any man to do what he has not the power to do. 
He would not "command all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 
17 : 30) if they were not able to do so. Man has no one to blame 
but himself if he does not repent and believe the Gospel. One 
of the leading ministers of the Gospel in Ohio wrote me a letter 
some time ago describing his conversion : it very forcibly illustrates 
this point of instantaneous decision. He said: 

"I was nineteen years old, and was reading law with a Christian 
lawyer in Vermont. One afternoon when he was away from home, 
his good wife said to me as I came into the house, 'I want you 
to go to class-meeting with me to-night and become a Christian, 
so that you can conduct family worship while my husband is away.' 
'Well, I'll do it,' I said, without any thought. When I came into 
the house again she asked me if I was honest in what I had said. 
I replied, 'Yes, so far as going to meeting with you is concerned; 
that is only courteous.' 

"I went with her to the class-meeting, as I had often done be- 
fore. About a dozen persons were present in a little school-house. 
The leader had spoken to all in the room but myself and two 
others. He was speaking to the person next me, when the thought 
occurred to me : he will ask me if I have anything to say. I said 
to myself: I have decided to be a Christian sometime; why not 
begin now? In less time than a minute after these thoughts had 
passed through my mind he said, speaking to me familiarly — for he 
knew me very well — 'Brother Charles, will you close the meeting 
with prayer?' He knew I had never prayed in public. Up to 
this moment I had no feeling. It was purely a business transaction. 
My first thought was : I cannot pray, and I will ask him to excuse 
me. My second was: I have said I will begin a Christian life; 
and this is a part of it. So I said, 'Let us pray.' And somewhere 



320 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

between the time I started to kneel and the time my knees struck the 
floor the Lord converted my soul. 

"The first words I said were, 'Glory to God '/ What I said after 
that I do not know, and it does not matter, for my soul was 
too full to say much but 'Glory!' From that hour the devil has 
never dared to challenge my conversion. To Christ be all the 
praise." 

Many people are waiting, they cannot exactly tell for what, but 
for some sort of miraculous feeling to come stealing over them 
— some mysterious kind of faith. I was speaking to a man some 
years ago, and he always had one answer to give me. For five 
years I tried to win him to Christ, and every year he said, "It has 
not 'struck me' yet." "Man, what do you mean? What has not 
struck you ?" "Well," he said, "I am not going to become a Chris- 
tian until it strikes me; and it has not struck me yet. I do not 
see it in the way you see it." "But don't you know you are a 
sinner?" "Yes, I know I am a sinner." "Well, don't you know 
that God wants to have mercy on you — that there is forgiveness 
with God? He wants you to repent and come to him." "Yes, 
I know that ; but — it has not struck me yet." He always fell back 
on that. Poor man! he went down to his grave in a state of in- 
decision. Sixty long years God gave him to repent; and all he 
had to say at the end of those years was that it "had not struck 
him yet." 

Is any one waiting for some strange feeling — ^you do not know 
what? Nowhere in the Bible is a man told to wait; God is com- 
manding you now to repent. 

Do you think God can forgive a man when he does not want to 
be forgiven? Would he be happy if God forgave him in this state 
of mind? Why, if a man went into the kingdom of God without 
repentance, heaven would be hell to him. Heaven is a prepared 
place for a prepared people. If your boy has done wrong, and 
will not repent, you cannot forgive him. You would be doing 
him an injustice. Suppose he goes to your desk, and steals $10, 
and squanders it. When you come home your servant tells you 
what your boy has done. You ask if it is true, and he denies it. 
But at last you have certain proof. Even when he finds he cannot 
deny it any longer, he will not confess the sin, but says he will do 
it again the first chance he gets. Would you say to him, "Well, I 
forgive you," and leave the matter there? No! Yet people say 
that God is going to save all men, whether they repent or not — 
drunkards, thieves, harlots, whoremongers, it makes no difference. 
"God is so merciful," they say. Dear friend, do not be deceived 
by the god of this world. Where there is true repentance and a 
turning from sin unto God, he will meet and bless you; but he 
never blesses until there is sincere repentance. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 321 

David made a woeful mistake in this respect with his rebellious 
son, Absalom. He could not have done his son a greater injustice 
than to forgive him when his heart was unchanged. There could 
be no true reconciliation between them when there was no repent- 
ance. But God does not make these mistakes. David got into 
trouble on account of his error of judgment. His son soon drove 
his father from the throne. 

Speaking on repentance, Dr. Brooks, of St. Louis, well remarks: 
"Repentance, strictly speaking, means a 'change of mind or pur- 
pose;' consequently it is the judgment which the sinner pronounces 
upon himself, in view of the love of God displayed in the death of 
Christ, connected with the abandonment of all confidence in him- 
self and with trust in the only Saviour of sinners. Saving repent- 
ance and saving faith always go together ; and you need not be wor- 
ried about repentance if you will believe." 

"Some people are not sure that they have 'repented enough.' 
If you mean by this that you must repent in order to incline God to 
be merciful to you, the sooner you give over such repentance the 
better. God is already merciful, as he has fully shown at the 
Cross of Calvary; and it is a grievous dishonor to his heart of 
love if you think that your tears and anguish will move him, 'not 
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.' 
It is not your badness, therefore, but his goodness that leads to 
repentance ; hence the true way to repent is to believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, 'who was delivered for our offences, and was raised 
again for our justification." " 

Another thing. If there is true repentance it will bring forth 
fruit. If we Jiave done wrong to any one we should never ask 
God to forgive us, until we are willing to make restitution. If 
I have done any man a great injustice and can make it good, I 
need not ask God to forgive me until I am willing to make it 
good. Suppose I have taken something that does not belong to 
me. I have no right to expect forgiveness until I make restitution. 

I remember preaching in one of our large cities, when a fine- 
looking man came up to me at the close. He was in great dis- 
tress of mind. "The fact is," he said, "I am a defaulter. I have 
taken money that belonged to my employers. How can I become a 
Christian without restoring it?" "Have you got the money?" He 
told me he had not got it all. He had taken about $1,500, and 
he still had about $900. He said, "Could I not take that money 
and go into business, and make enough to pay them back?" I told 
him that was a delusion of Satan : that he could not expect to pros- 
per on stolen money; that he should restore all he had, and go and 
ask his employers to have mercy upon him and forgive him. "But 
they will put me in prison," he said: "cannot you give me any 
help?" "No, you must restore the money before you can expect 



322 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

to get any help from God." "It is pretty hard," he said. "Yes, 
it is hard; but the great mistake was in doing the wrong at first." 

His burden became so heavy that it got to be insupportable. He 
handed me the money — 950 dolla;-s and some cents — and asked me 
to take it back to his employers. The next evening the two em- 
ployers and myself met in a side room of the church. I laid the 
money down, and informed them it was from one of their employes. 
I told them the story, and said he wanted mercy from them, not 
justice. The tears trickled down the cheeks of these two men, 
and they said, "Forgive him! Yes, we will be glad to forgive 
him." I went down stairs and brought him up. After he had 
confessed his guilt and been forgiven, we all got down on our 
knees and had a blessed prayer-meeting. God met us and blessed 
us there. 

There was a friend of mine who some time ago had come to 
Christ and wished to consecrate himself and his wealth to God. 
He had formerly had transactions with the government, and had 
taken advantage of them. This thing came up when he was con- 
verted, and his conscience troubled him. He said, "I want to con- 
secrate my wealth, but it seems as if God will not take it." He 
had a terrible struggle; his conscience kept rising up and smiting 
him. At last he drew a check for $1,500 and sent it to the United 
States Treasury. He told me he received such a blessing when he 
had done it. That was bringing forth "fruits meet for repentance." 
I believe a great many men are crying to God for light and they 
are not getting it because they are not honest. 

I was once preaching, and a man came to me who was only 
thirty-two years old, but whose hair was very grey. He said, "I 
want you to notice that my hair is grey, and I am only thirty-two 
years old. For twelve years I have carried a great burden." 
"Well," I said, "what is it?" He looked around as if afraid some 
one would hear him. "Well," he answered, "my father died and 
left my mother with the county newspaper, and left her only that : 
that was all she had. After he died the paper began to waste 
away; and I saw my mother was fast sinking into a state of need. 
The building and the paper were insured for a thousand dollars, 
and when I was twenty years old I set fire to the building, and 
obtained the thousand dollars, and gave it to my mother. For 
twelve years that sin has been haunting me. I have tried to drown 
it by indulgence in pleasure and sin ; I have cursed God ; I have gone 
into infidelity; I have tried to make out that the Bible is not true; 
I have done everything I could: but all these years I have been 
tormented." I said, "There is a way out of that." He inquired 
"How ?" I said, "Make restitution. Let us sit down and calculate 
the interest, and then you pay the Company the money." It would 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 323 

have done you good to see that man's face light up when he found 
there was mercy for him. He said he would be glad to pay 
back the money and interest if he could only be forgiven. 

There are men to-day who are in darkness and bondage because 
they are not willing to turn from their sins and confess them; 
and I do not know how a man can hope to be forgiven if he is 
not willing to confess his sins. 

Bear in mind that now is the only day of mercy you will ever 
have. You can repent now, and have the awful record blotted out. 
God waits to forgive you; he is seeking to bring you to himself. 
But I think the Bible teaches clearly that there is no repentance 
after this life. There are some who tell you of the possibility 
of repentance in the grave; but I do not find that in Scripture. 
I have looked my Bible over very carefully, and I cannot find that 
a man will have another opportunity of being saved. 

Why should he ask for any more time? You have time enough 
to repent now. You can turn from your sins this moment if you 
will. God says: "I have no pleasure in the death of him that 
dieth; wherefore turn, and live ye'* (Ezek. 18:32). 

Christ said, he *'came not to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance." Are you a sinner ? Then the call to repent is addressed 
to you. Take your place in the dust at the Saviour's feet, and 
acknowledge your guilt. Say, like the publican of old, "God be 
merciful to me a sinner!" and see how quickly he will pardon and 
bless you. He will even justify you and reckon you as righteous, 
by virtue of the righteousness of him who bore your sins in his 
own body on the Cross. 

There are some perhaps who think themselves righteous; and 
that, therefore, there is no need for them to repent and believe the 
Gospel. They are like the Pharisee in the parable, who thanked 
God that he was not as other men — "extortioners, unjust, adult- 
erers, or even as this publican;" and who went on to say, "I fast 
twice a week; I give tithes of all I possess." What is the judg- 
ment about such self-righteous persons ? "I tell you this man 
(the poor, contrite, repenting publican) went down to his house 
justified rather than the other" (Luke 18: 11-14). "There is none 
righteous; no, not one." "All have sinned, and come short of the 
glory of God" (Rom. 3 : 10, 23). Let no one say he does not need 
to repent. Let each one take his true place — that of a sinner ; then 
God will lift him up to the place of forgiveness and justification. 
"Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he that humbleth 
himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:2). 

Wherever God sees true repentance in the heart he meets that 
soul. 

I was in Colorado, preaching the gospel some time ago, and I 



324 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

heard something that touched my heart very much. The governor 
of the State was passing through the prison, and in one cell he 
found a boy who had his window full of flowers that seemed to 
have been watched with very tender care. The governor looked 
at the prisoner, and then at the flowers, and asked whose they 
were. "These are my flowers," said the poor convict. "Are you 
fond of flowers?" "Yes, sir." "How long have you been here?" 
He told him so many years : he was in for a long sentence. The 
governor was surprised to find him so fond of the flowers, and he 
said, "Can you tell me why you like these flowers so much ?" With 
much emotion he replied, "While my mother was alive she thought 
a good deal of flowers; and when I came here I thought if I had 
these they would remind me of mother." The governor was so 
pleased that he said, "Well, young man, if you think so much of 
your mother I think you will appreciate your liberty," and he par- 
doned him then and there. 

When God finds that beautiful flower of true repentance spring- 
ing up in a man's heart, then salvation comes to that man. 



THE BOW IN THE CLOUDS 

By Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 

Text: "/ do set my how in the cloud, and it shall be a token of 
a covenant between me and the earth.'* Genesis 9 : 13. 

It may seem at first thought as if this were a queer text to choose 
from which to give a gospel message, and yet all the works of God 
are so wonderful that one has but to get the key to unlock the 
door leading into them to find them filled with sweetness and with 
help. The rainbow is no exception to this rule. It is hardly pos- 
sible for one to look upon the bow that spans the clouds after a 
storm without an exclamation of delight. 

One would think that it would grow monotonous, for we have 
seen it so many times, but quite the opposite is true. Sunsets dif- 
fer; they are as unlike as two things could possibly be. Indeed, it 
must be true that one is never like the other. But rainbows are al- 
ways the same. And yet in spite of this we are charmed as we 
look, and inspired as we study. 

The first mention of a bow is in the text. It is not said that 
this is the first time the rainbow has appeared, for from the very 
nature of the case it has always been in existence since the worlds 
began to be, but this is said to be the first use of it. The last 
mention of a rainbow is Revelation 4:3: "And he that sat was to 
look upon like jasper and a sardine stone : and there was a rainbow 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 325 

round about the throne, in sight Hke unto an emerald." You no- 
tice that the expression used is "round about the throne/' and here 
for the first time we find a rainbow in a complete circle. 

We have only seen the half of it here, which is surely an illustra- 
tion of the fact that in this world at best we only get the half 
of things. We only get the half of truth. Take the great doc- 
trine of the Atonement: who is able to understand it? But it is 
very helpful to know that we are not obliged to understand it, but 
only to receive it. God is satisfied with it, and he fully compre- 
hends it, and when we stand with him in glory we shall see the 
other half of the bow, and our hearts shall rejoice. We only see 
the half of life here. At its best it is a mystery. Over and over 
again, when we wanted to go to the right we were compelled to 
turn to the left, and a thousand times because of our perplexities 
and trials we have cried aloud: "How can these things be?" 

But we must learn the lesson that we must trust him where we 
cannot understand him. The day will come, when seated at his 
feet we shall see the other half of the bow of our life, and we 
shall know indeed that all things have worked together for good. 

The last mention of the bow in Revelation tells us that it is to 
be like an emerald. This is certainly very strange, for one has 
never beheld a green rainbow here. Six other colors must be added 
to it to make it complete. The color, however, is not without its 
suggestiveness. Greeji is the color that always rests the eye. It is 
for this reason that the hillsides, the waving branches of the trees, 
and the grass beneath our feet, are so restful on a summer day. Is 
not this a hint that heaven is a place of rest as well as beauty? 

There are three primal colors in the rainbow, red, yellow and 
blue. If you drop the red and put the yellow and the blue together 
you have green as a result. Red is the color of suffering. Surely 
it is a hint as to the thought that when one passes through the 
gates of pearl he leaves suffering behind him. There is to be no 
red mark in heaven. Christ finished his sufferings upon Calvary, 
and never a pang shall meet him again. We finish our suffering 
too when we say good-bye to this weary road we have traveled, 
and the gate of heaven that shuts us in shuts suffering out. 

I. The cloud. 

We know what the cloud was for Noah, (for this text which 
I have quoted has to do with him), and a cloud in Noah^s day 
was not unlike the cloud of yesterday; but in the thought of the 
sermon, the cloud is sin. 

It would make one heartsick to read the history of sin. First, 
in the world, beginning with Adam, going to Noah, reaching the 
howling mob about the cross of Calvary coming down to the present 
day, when the whole world seems to be touched with its power, 
the most terrible thing in the world is sin. Second, in the home, 



326 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

blighting and blasting that which is a type of heaven, and wrecking 
that which God meant to be a safe vessel to carry us through 
the turmoils and strife ever round about us. Third, in our own 
heart, giving us wrong conceptions of God, and dragging us toward 
hell, even against our will. The blackest thing in all the world 
is sin. 

The cloud does two things. 

1. It obscures the sun. The cloud of sin does the same thing. 
No one ever yet has had a true vision of Jesus Christ with the least 
particle of sin in his heart or life. *'Blessed are the pure in heart, 
for they shall see God." 

A poor fellow converted in one of the missions in Chicago, who 
was thought before his conversion to be hardly worth the saving, 
was so wonderfully transformed that a committee waited upon 
him to find the secret of his changed life. He answered their ques- 
tion in just one sentence: *T have seen Jesus." This vision ever 
changes the life and transforms character. 

2. The cloud compels us to see things in a false light. God 
made the works of his hands to be seen in the sunlight. We must 
not judge them under the cloud. And with the cloud of sin across 
a man's mind he can have no real conception of the Bible ; he must 
certainly be prejudiced against the church. Scatter the darkness 
that hovers over your mind, and the Bible will become to you the 
very thought of God, while the church will compel your admiration. 

II. Across the cloud God casts his bow. 

To see a bow three things are necessary. First, there must be 
a cloud; we certainly have that in the world's sin. Second, the 
sun must be shining; we have this condition met in the fact that 
God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Third, the 
rain must be falling. We have this in Isaiah 55 : 10, 1 1 — "For as 
the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth 
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and 
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 
so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall 
not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I 
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." 

Or, we might put it — first, in order that we may be saved, we 
must acknowledge ourselves to be sinners. This is the cloud. 
Second, we must have some conception of God's hatred of sin. 
This is the light. Third, we must be persuaded that he loved 
us and gave himself for us. This is the rain. With these condi- 
tions met, the bow of promise spans the cloud of a sinful life. 

III. The seven colors. 

If I should hold a prism in my hand and the light of day should 
touch it there would be refracted at once seven colors, as follows : 
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. There never 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 327 

has been a rainbow in this world but these have been seen in more 
or less prominence. In my message now, the prism is the cross, 
and the light is God's truth. As it strikes this long prism it breaks 
up into seven colors. The seven together give us the rainbow. 

First, forgiveness. Psalm 32 : 1 — "Blessed is he whose trans- 
gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." The word forgiven 
means taken off. What a wonderful thought it is! Oh, what a 
load of sin we had to carry ! How it did weigh us down ! How 
day and night we went crying aloud, saying, *'Oh, wretched man 
that I am, who shall deliver me?" Resolution never lifted it a 
particle. Reformation only seemed to make it heavier. Then he 
came, and stooped down, or whispered to us just one sweet word, 
''Forgiven!" and when we realized it the burden was taken off. 
To receive all of this we have but to yield to God. Trying to make 
ourselves better only adds to the cloud and deepens our despair. 

The second color is cleansing. Psalm 51 : 7 — "Purge me with 
hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than 
snow." The little bunch of hyssop carries us back to the Passover 
night, when the lamb was slain and its blood collected. It was not 
said that one should take a brush, but a bunch of hyssop, and dip 
it in the blood and sprinkle the posts of the door. The commonest 
thing that grew in the East was hyssop. It represents faith. One 
had but to step to the door of the cottage and stoop down to pluck 
a bunch of hyssop. The commonest thing in all this world is 
faith. We have faith in each other, whether we express it in 
this world or not; and the faith that one has in his mother, in his 
father, in wife or husband, if turned toward Jesus Christ, would 
save his soul. It is one thing to be forgiven, but the color deepens, 
and the truth sweetens when we know that because of the shed 
blood of Jesus Christ we may be made clean. "The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 

The third color is justification. Romans 4:25 — "Who was de- 
livered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." 
One might be perfectly sure of his forgiveness, and know that it 
meant sins taken off, and might be confident of his cleansing, but 
there is the memory of the old life of failure which is ever to him 
like a shackle when he would run to God. Justification is sweeter 
by far than anything we have yet learned. When Christ rose for 
our justification he stood before God as a kind of a receipt (as 
John Robertson has said), and when God looks upon that receipt he 
knows the bill is paid. 

"Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. 

Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow." 

But justification is even better to me than this, for when one 
is justified before God he actually stands as if he never had sinned. 



328 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

The fourth color is — sins covered by the sea. Micah 7 : 19 — 
"He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will 
subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the 
depths of the sea/' 

It is very comforting to know that there are some depths in the 
ocean so deep that they can never be sounded. Our sins must have 
gone as deep. 

There is also another thought of comfort : if a body is cast into the 
ocean where the waters are not very deep, when the storms come 
and the ocean is in a fury, the storm, as if with giant hands, takes 
the dead body and casts it upon the shore. But there are depths in 
the sea so great that no storm that has ever yet swept across the 
face of the deep has stirred the waters. Thanks be unto God, our 
sins may be sunk so deep in the sea, that they will never be cast up 
against us again. The color deepens and the truth grows sweeter 
still. 

The fifth color is — sins removed. Psalm 103 : 12 — "As far as 
the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgres- 
sions from us." 

It has been proved that the distance from east to west could 
never be measured. This is certainly inspiring. But there is some- 
thing better for me than this in the fifth color, for when I am 
told that my sins are as far from me as the east is from the 
west I know that the east and the west can never be brought 
together; nor can the saved sinner and his pardoned sins ever 
meet again. 

The sixth color is Isaiah 44 : 22 — "I have blotted out, as a thick 
cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto 
me, for I have redeemed thee." 

A man can not blot out his own sins. Some have tried it with 
their tears and have lost their reason. Some have attempted it 
by works of mercy, and have given up in despair. But God can 
easily do it. For sins to be blotted out may mean the same as 
for man's account to be blotted out. I may have a bill charged 
against me on the books, but if on the opposite side is credited 
a sufficient sum of money to meet the indebtedness, it is blotted 
out. But the expression must mean more than this. It means 
that when one's sins are blotted out by God they are as if they 
never had been. 

The seventh color seems the climax of all. Ezekiel 33 : 16 — 
"None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto 
him : he hath done that which is lawful and right ; he shall surely 
live." 

We have an idea that, although our sins have been forgiven and 
we may have been justified, when the great day of judgment comes 
we may be^ obliged to meet them all again. But this is not true. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 329 

Once and for all hath he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, 
and the sins of our lives shall not again be mentioned to us. 

IV. God's covenant. 

The bow was God's covenant then. Now God's covenant is 
his Word, and upon this Word we may depend. Notice the num- 
ber of times God uses the expression, "I will," in Exodus 6 : 6-8. 

"Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel I am the Lord, and 
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and 
I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with 
a stretched out arm and with great judgments : and I will take you 
to me for a people, and I will be to you a God and ye shall know 
that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under 
the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the 
land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, 
to Isaac and to Jacob ; and I will give you it for an heritage : I am 
the Lord." 

He ever waits to fulfill the covenant which he has made with 
Christ concerning us. If we would have the joy of salvation, we 
need but two things: first, we must believe God; whatever our 
feelings may be, we must believe; second, believing God, we must 
act as if we believed him. The one gives us life. The other gives 
us joy in life's possession. 



LIVING LOVE 

By Rev. John Robertson, D.D. 

Text: ''Unto him that loves us, and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
Amen." Rev. 1:5, 6. 

John is in Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony 
of Jesus Christ — blessed reason for being anywhere. His feet 
are on the silver sands of the ^gean Sea, and it is the hour when 
thought is born. The sunset is casting the long shadows of the 
headland into the ocean, and John in his exile is taking a walk 
with his God in the cool of the evening. And his heart takes 
its flight to Ephesus where his flock is ; and from Ephesus takes 
its flight to heaven where his Saviour is. And what was that? 
Was it the wind lifting up the sand of the sea-shore and playing 
with it as with an ^blian harp? or was it the moaning of the 
waves round yonder cliffs? or was it the scream of yon sea-bird? 
or was it the echo of the revelry in the fishing village of Patmos, 
where a wedding was to-night ? ^ 



330 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

It is the echo of the heavenly harping that John hears. There 
come strugghng by the stars into this dull, foggy, sin-laden at- 
mosphere four bars of the divinest music that he ever heard. And 
he catches them, for he has got an ear, John, for the heavenly 
harpings. He catches the lilt, and going home he bends over the 
growing manuscript of Revelation, and with his stylus he puts 
down what he heard for his own practising, and for yours and mine. 
This is what they are singing on high, and what we are training 
for here. "Can you play the fiddle, John?" said the minister to 
the northern boy. "I dinna ken, sir ; I never tried," said he. "Ah, 
my boy, if you never tried that difficult instrument, you may just 
as well say you cannot do it." So, so, if you never tried to hum 
over on earth the bars of this song that they sing in heaven, you 
cannot do it, that is all. You cannot take your place in heaven's 
choir without the practising. The Conductor will look after that. 
He is not to have his name and fame bespattered through you. 
You will have to get it up on earth ; you will have to practise jt, 
and have all your mistakes over before the Conductor taps with his 
baton for the orchestra of heaven to take their places and sing 
to his glory. 

That is what we are all doing down here ; you and I — ^blessed be 
God! — are humming in our closets, are humming in our places of 
business, in our offices, this glorious song. And there are some of 
us that have already caught the highest, purest notes of it, and the 
Lord has said, "Make way for this man. Have you got a place 
in the front rank, ye heavenly singers, for this saint that caught the 
high note?" He is ready for the promotion, and he has gone home. 
Or it is some poor bedridden saint. In her trouble and pain she 
caught it, and it was reported to the Lord that there was a fine 
voice on earth, that a fine singer had been discovered in the furnace 
of time. And the Lord said, "Send for her, I have got a place for 
her if she has got a voice that can sing perfectly, as ye say, this 
song. Make way." And they are all coming home from the streets 
of time, they are all taking their places with confirmed singing 
powers, with all their mistakes over ; and how they sing it on high ! 

Suppose we try this morning to hum over the bars, and may God 
help us with the harps of our souls to sing it sincerely if not purely, 
to sing it willingly if not holily. But the Lord help us to sing it 
purely and willingly and holily, for his name's sake. 

I. The first bar is this : "Unto him that loves us." Can you sing 
that? This is, in the first place, the source of salvation in eternity. 
"Unto him that loves us." When God set out for his journey of 
redemption he must have looked round the shelves of glory for what 
to take, as some of you starting on a journey, pack your bag or 
portmanteau. Certain things you take with you for the journey. 
So with God. There are the thunders of almighty power. Is 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 33 1 

he to take these? No. He became man — poor, feeble man, and 
the thunders slept till he came back. Is he to take the glory 
above the sun's strength? Is he to take the robe of uncreated 
light? No. He strips him of the visible Godhead. He lays aside 
the uncreated Shekinah manifestation, but he takes something — 
something that heaven can give and that earth needs. He dips his 
almighty heart in love. He cannot do without that. The hope- 
springs of earth are dried up ; he will not get love enough here, and 
if he is to bring love he must get it before he starts. And so in 
the counsels of eternity the chalice of his heart is filled with love, 
love which is salvation. He comes with the only qualification for 
his great work that he sees needful — love in his heart. 

Now earth had seen love a million times before, since Adam had 
whispered the story of his heart's adoration into the ear of Eve. 
A million times this earth had witnessed a heart beating with love. 
And what about that? Wherein is Christ's love different from the 
love that the sun had looked down upon for a million times a 
million? Love had been reckoned with before. 

It was in Leith, and the sailor had never had this feeling prior 
to a voyage before ; he never had this chill presentiment of coming 
disaster creep over his heart ; and he bids his wife and bairns good- 
bye up there in the attic, and he comes down to the first landing- 
place. It won't do ; back again for another kiss, for another twining 
of his eldest born round his neck, for another look into the dear 
eyes. He never did this before; he bids them farewell again. 
Down to the street this time, out among the gas lamps, but he does 
not get round the corner; he must go back. And the wife hears 
his step coming up the stairs, and a chill for the first time creeps 
up to the heart. She never saw him like this before. He could 
take his farewell and go singing down the stairs to the sea; but 
not so to-day. And he says, "Oh, wife, I have just come back 
to get a kiss of the bairnies. I feel very strange bidding you 
good-bye; I never felt like this before." And so he goes through 
it again, and the little ones twine their arms round his neck, and 
they say, "Good-bye, papa ; bring some nice things from the foreign 
land to your little boy and your little girl ; good-bye !" And at last 
he gets on board, and "the boat she rocks at the pier of Leith," 
and at last takes her way. And the wind rises and the waves 
put on their white caps and roll, and they climb up to see what the 
big vessel is like, and they signal to the great heaving deep to 
prepare for the struggle, and a leak starts, and the vessel, reeling 
and rocking before the tempest, goes witli a shudder to the deep. 
And they take from the ooze and mud of that foreign shore the 
limp, Hfeless body, and they part the yellow hair of the Scottish 
sailor from his white brow, and they bury him on the foreign 
shore. The widow, with her sad weeds upon her, is wearing herself 



332 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

to the very bone to rear the sailor's lads and lasses in the fear 
and admonition of the Lord. That is human love. What is it 
when death interferes with it? Why, man, you have to leave your 
loved ones, you have to leave the sunshine of your home, you have 
to go down to the deep, you have to list to the flapping of the sail 
and the clanking^ of the oars in the rowlocks ; you are going away 
from home, and home is going away from you. *'Alas for love, 
if thou wert all and nought beyond, O Death !" 

When Christ came with his heart of love, there was a grim 
chuckle in hell. "We have seen love in the human heart before," 
and the grim angel of death fluttered his black wings, and said, "I'll 
settle it. Has the strange mysterious Man brought only love with 
him? I have annihilated love a million times, and I will do it for 
him also." And the men surrounded him, and the traitor's kiss 
was planted on his cheek, and the priests got hold of him, and the 
soldiers took him away, to death, and his pale lips say, "It is 
finished." And, true, they did bring him from the Cross, a limp, 
lifeless body. The arms hung by the side and the head fell on 
the breast of the bearer. They put him into a grave and rolled a 
great stone there, and they went about, saying, "He is dead — dead ?' 
O love in the Saviour's heart, thou art blotted out after all ! Death 
has interfered with love. And on the way to Emmaus there are 
two disciples. They are very downhearted this morning. They 
are saying one to the other, "What an awful thing! We trusted 
it had been he who should have redeemed Israel, and to-day is the 
third day, and he is in the grave." Was he dead? The Divine 
sleeper stirs in his sleep. A tremor of returning life runs through 
his frame. He rises and calmly puts aside the cerements of the 
grave, and on the Sabbath morning he is risen. Death has lost 
its power, and with the love in Christ's heart Death has been de- 
feated. "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy 
victory?" Where is it? Christ hath brought life and immortality 
to light! And it is that love that you and I need this morning, 
the love that Death hath no power over, a deathless love, a love 
that is to exist and be strong when yonder sun flickers out into 
eternal midnight. It is that love that my longing soul craves for, 
and it is that love that is in Christ's heart. It is a deathless love; 
it is a love that you can allow yourselves to sail in. Human love ! 
— why, we dare only creep from headland to headland; we cannot 
launch out into the deep, for death is nigh. How many go forth 
in the morning and never come back at night! But in Christ's 
love you can let your soul go. You can sail into the mighty ocean 
assured that there is no limit, that there is no further shore to it, 
that there are no shoals to tear the ribs of the vessel of your heart 
asunder. The deathless love of Christ, can you sing it? "Unto 
him that loves us" with a deathless love. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 333 

Ay, but there is a worse thing than death about love. He had 
breathed his pledges of devotion into a trusting ear, and had brought 
a blush to the cheek, and he had vowed to be true. He is going 
away to America. He is to make his fortune in that big land, and 
as soon as he gets a nest cosily and comfortably prepared he is 
to send for her. "Never fear. Til be true.*' And he did set sail, 
and he did get on, and eyes — not fairer, indeed, than the eyes he had 
left behind — of an American girl were turned on him. He saw 
not her, but her purse, and he saw the chance of promotion. He 
would wed, not her, but the old father who had the business. He 
would marry the dollar and bid the damsel to the marriage. And 
so the letters homeward descended very rapidly from "Yours de- 
votedly and eternally, and for ever and ever," at last, to "Yours 
truly." And what was it in that morning paper, as she turned the 
leaves thereof, made the lassie fall as a huddled heap at the feet 
of her mother? It is this: "On such and such a date, in such and 
such a church in New York, So-and-So to So-and-So." Poor lassie! 
go down to the grave now with a broken heart. The parents 
can hear the drip, drip, drip of the heart's blood to the last. He 
is faithless, his promises are false. And that is human love. You 
cannot ride the water on it, as we say in the north; you cannot 
trust it very much. Blessed are ye if ye have got a love in the 
human heart that ye can trust fully and unreservedly. How often 
have promises written in blood disappeared as if written in water 
on the sea-shore? 

And so, Christ, Thou hast brought many promises — that is true ; 
and many pledges of undying affection — that is true. But the 
world — this grim, heartless world — has heard vows before, has re- 
ceived promises and pledges before. O Christ, what about Thine? 
"God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man 
that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it ? Hath 
he spoken and shall he not make it good?" Is there any other 
attraction on the other side that Christ hath loved beyond my poor 
sinful heart? Are not the fields of glory blooming with a thousand 
flowers that would be proud to be worn on Thy breast? Wilt Thou 
be faithful on high, O Christ? Thou didst come to me a poor 
sinner, and Thou didst cast Thy mantle of love over me, and in the 
silence Thou didst breathe affection to my heart, and Thou hast won 
it. Art Thou to be faithful? Is not Christ yearning and longing 
for the day when he will welcome you to glory? Christ's humilia- 
tion is not yet ended. His service of heart is not yet by. He is sad 
and weary with longing for the day when he will present me, fault- 
less, before the presence of his Father with exceeding joy. He is 
faithful, beloved, never fear. He can get no brighter eyes meeting 
his than your dim, blear, reek-filled eyes of earth. The Lord 
has loved you with an everlasting love. A mother may forget, 



334 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

yet not I, he says ; a lover may be false, yet not I. I have loved 
thee with an everlasting love. Can you sing it yet? Is it not a 
glorious love — deathless, faithful, abiding, unchanging amid the 
wreck of matter and the crash of worlds? The love of Christ will 
outlive the sun ; the love of Christ will be strong in mighty current 
when the stars, the last of them, pull a veil over their faces and die. 
The love of Christ is the one eternal, abiding, almighty force in 
the universe. Can you sing it? *'Unto him that loves us" with a 
deathless, undying, unchanging, abiding, eternal love, to him "be 
glory and dominion for ever and ever." 

II. Then, in the second place, we have in these four bars of 
heavenly music, the effect of salvation in time. The first was 
the source of salvation in eternity; the second is the fact of salvation 
in time. The stream runs from the hillside to the valley, and it gets 
deep, and wide, and broad, and the masts of the navy of a com- 
mercial city are reflected in its fair bosom. So with the love of 
God. It came rushing out of the pearly gates a mighty torrent, 
and it came down to the valley and expanded there into a broad 
lake, and the love has become a fact in time. And the way it has 
become a fact is this : The love has washed us in the precious blood 
of Christ. Strange effect of love, the washing! strange result 
of the affection of the Lord! The washing — ^you, mother, can 
understand it. Your little son has been out all the summer day. 
He has had splendid fun. Oh, what enjoyment! And he has 
stayed out till the shadows have fallen, and he is very tired, tired 
even of amusement. He comes into the house where love is, and 
what does love do ? Oh, he is very sleepy ; just let him go to bed. 
"Mother, I am awfully sleepy ; I am not for any supper ; indeed, I 
am so tired." But love has something to say, love has some action 
to go through, before the dirty little boy can get between the clean 
sheets. Love draws out the bath into the middle of the floor, 
and love puts the towels there, and love puts the soap there, and 
love catches hold of the little fellow's collar, and in spite of grum- 
bling, in spite of the little fellow's bad temper — for he is sleepy, God 
help him — plunges him into the bath, and love takes him out splut- 
tering, but clean. So with God. Oh, how foul we were, how the 
streets of time had left their defilement on our spirit. What must 
love do in the first place? "Oh," says one, "love will just please 
wink and take us, bad as we are, into heaven; love will open wide 
the pearly gates, and let us all as we are, unwashed, foul, 
unclean, into heaven." Would love do such a thing? How 
can a soul in all its vileness get into heaven without washing? 
That is the problem that God had to set to solve. How can man 
be just with God? How can the sinful soul get into heaven 
without washing? Nay, nay. There must be ablution, there must 
be washing, and what is to do it? A thousand rivers — ^have they 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 335 

water enough to cleanse a sinful heart? What is necessary? 
What did God find and feel to be necessary? What is 
that awful tinge that reddens the waves of the laver of 
regeneration? What is this mysterious chemical, Thou, God, art 
putting there? Why this agony of Thy beloved Son? Why the 
open Side, why the pierced Hands and Feet, why the Blood? 
**Without shedding of blood there is no remission," says God. Do 
you think that God would have shed the precious Blood of his 
Son had it not been necessary? Was it superfluous? Was it a 
mere superfluous reddening of the laver? It was necessary, God 
saw it. 

"What can wash away my sin? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
What can make me whole again? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus." 

And that is what love did. If you turn to the Revised Version, 
you will see that the wise men of the West have wisely put the 
word "loosed" for "washing." It is the same idea, but more vig- 
orously expressed. Sometimes when the dirt sticks you take pumice 
stone, or something that will rub or scrape. And so the Greek 
word shows that God's washing is so effectual, the blood of Jesus 
is so powerful in its cleansing, that it is more like cutting off, 
it is more like excising and putting aside. The word is a strong 
word — loosing, cutting us out from our sins by his precious blood. 
And in this washing the very skin is gone. You must be clean 
if you have gone to the quick, and, if God's washing has rubbed 
the very skin off, it is all right. There is no room for more defile- 
ment. The Greek word then is, "Unto him that looseth us from 
our sins with his own blood." When the English folk hunted 
away our Bruce, they were not content with their own great, grand, 
glorious plains, they would have liked our mountainous little country, 
but they did not get it ! Bruce stood up, and they went after him, 
and they put his own bloodhounds on his track, and with nostrils 
bent to the ground the brutes followed their royal master, unaware 
that they were tracking him to his death; and the English came 
after, and they urged the hounds on and on. Bruce heard the dis- 
tant baying of his own beloved pack behind him, and the attendant 
said, "We are done for, the English have unleashed the hounds, 
and they are on your trail, and they will betray your hiding-place." 
"Stop a bit," says Bruce, "it's all right." There is a stream flowing 
through the forest, and he goes to it, and he plunges into the 
stream and wades three bowshots up, and then into the depths of 
the forest. The hounds come up to the bank, tracking step by 
step their beloved master. But no further. "Urge them on and 



336 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

see the hounds over that little brook, and get up the trail.'* They 
cannot. The pursuers may urge them, and may whip them, may 
lash them, may spear them, but they are done for. The trail is 
broken. The stream has carried the scent of the king far downward. 
And Bruce, one day soon after, puts the crown of Scotland on his 
own brow. So my sins, urged by the devil, came behind me, a 
yelling pack. I felt their hot breath as I fled, and they vowed to 
have me. But a st^eam, not glassy and clear, but red with the 
blood of the Sor of God, came by my feet. I plunged in, through 
God's grace, and I can stand on the other bank and defy every hell- 
hound of my past to touch me. That is it! The scent is lost, 
blessed be God. The trail of the past — where is It? It is broken in 
the blood of Christ. 

"I plunged and am cleansed, I plunged and am free; 
I plunged in the crimson tide flowing for me. 
From sin and uncleanness exulting I stand! 
And point to the prints of the nails in his hand. 
Oh, sing of his mighty love, 
Sing of his mighty love. 
Sing of his mighty love. 
Mighty to save." 

Can you sing it, the glorious second part of this glorious song? 

III. Then the third bar, you notice, is this — the effect of salva- 
tion on man. *'And hath made us kings." We crouch, a slave, to 
the Cross, but we give three leaps from it, and tread to heaven with 
the tramp of a king. The Cross gives dignity, the Cross gives 
royalty, to the saved heart. Christ crowns us when the heart ac- 
cepts him. We are kings, and we have a country. We are not 
like John Lackland, for a king must have a kingdom. We are 
kings from the Cross, and what is our kingdom? It is our heart, 
our own soul, that is our kingdom. "Didn't God promise us the 
land?" lightly said a doubting, unbelieving soldier to his comrade, 
as they crossed the Jordan ; "Isn't this the Jehovah-promised land ? 
our land? and here we are preparing for battle. Why are we not 
going into the vineyards to eat and drink our fill? Why are we 
in armour — why has the word come to up and at them? This 
is our land. Are we not over the Jordan?" Ay, but over the 
Jordan is not up at Jerusalem. Never forget you have to foot it 
and fight it that road — inch by inch, cubit by cubit. Your great 
country of Promise has to be conquered by your own little fist of 
Fulfilling. So with your heart. It is the promised land, it is the 
promised land, but you have to fight for it. You have, as a con- 
queror, to make the plains of your own soul reverberate with your 
own tread. Joshua said of the five kings, "Just put them into the 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 337 

cave alive, and don't waste time over them," and they put them 
into the cave of Makkedah, and pursued the foe till sunset. After 
they had wiped the sweat from their brow and the blood from their 
swords they came back. "Now," says Joshua — and it is Jesus, the 
Old Testament Jesus in holy symbol that we see — "Now," says 
Joshua, "roll away the stone of the place," and they rolled away 
the stone. "Bring the five kings out," he says, and they come out. 
How crestfallen, how slave-like, how puny they look! "Now," 
says he to the captains of the host, "come near a.^d put your feet 
on the necks of those kings." And they came near and put their 
feet on the necks of those kings. So says Jesus to me when he 
forgives me, when he washes me in his precious blood, when he 
looses me from my sinful past. Old habits, come out! old sins, 
passions, lusts, come out! "Put your feet on the necks of them,*' 
says Christ, and I, by the grace of God, put my feet on old habits, 
old sins, old passions, and am king over my own heart "And hath 
made us kings." 

And it is the priest's service that God accepts and needs to-day. 
It is the profession of adoration, it is the song of praise from my 
heart that he cannot get from the harps of heaven. It is this, 
that you and I should just tell him more that we love him. You 
know they say a Scotchman never tells his wife he loves her till 
he is just dying. Well, it is a pity, a great pity. In this world 
he would be happier and she would be happier, if he would tell 
his love into the ear while it can hear. He was a rough fellow, 
Jack, the terror of the Aberdeenshire village. A "ne'er-do-weel," 
in every scrape he, always in trouble, always in hot water, the ter- 
ror of the whole country-side, rough, swearing Jack. His mother's 
heart was nigh broken over it, and she was a widow, and he her 
only son. And he slipped out one night and took ship at Aberdeen 
without telling his mother or anybody. He went away to Australia 
and into the bush dived he, lived a rough godless life as a gold- 
digger, and at last one day he is a millionaire, a rich man. Un- 
speakably rich those nuggets have made him. And a great rush 
of emotion comes to his heart. "I'll away home ; I'll make mother 
proud of her boy now. I will buy the estate beside the village, and 
I'll take dear mother. How she has borne with me! How she 
will be proud when I come in the carriage for her and bring her 
to the mansion, and say, 'These broad lands are mine and thine, dear 
mother.' " And all the way home he was pacing the deck, and 
he was saying what a surprise it would be to the old body ! How 
proud she would be, and how the villagers would wonder that the 
ne'er-do-weel had turned out pretty well after all. Who is this 
that comes staggering into the peat firelight of the old kitchen in 
this neighboring farmhouse? What drunken — but not with wine 
— staggering man reels his way to a chair at the fire? The as- 



338 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

sembled household look in wonder upon him. He left a beardless 
young boy; here is a brown-tanned foreigner. "Don't you know 
me ? Where's mother ?" Approaching the village, he had come in 
sight of that saddest of all sights, and that is too frequent in our 
beloved Scotland — two bare gables, as if in bitter mockery, appeal- 
ing to a dumb God on high, who witnesses evictions and yet is 
silent. The fields and the little croft have been added to the big 
farm. "Mother! I'll take you on the morrow and show you 
where mother is." And he came to the churchyard by the river, 
and his friend said, "Just in yonder corner, Jack; you see where 
the lilies are; we planted them for your sake — just there." And 
the friend heard this before he turned away from where angels 
would fear to tread — the strong man flung himself on the grass 
and said, "Oh, mother! I did love you, mother!" But mother 
was away. "J^^k, you lost the chance, man. She pined visibly 
for her boy. There was no letter. No, you were too late. Jack." 
And the friend catches sometimes a sigh, a far-away look in the 
face, and he is silent as he well knows that Jack is back to the green 
grave, back to the lilies, is back to the dear mother who never heard 
from her wilful boy. "O mother, I did love you." And yet he 
did let her go without knowing it. Oh, her sad loneliness. 

So the Lord Jesus, beloved, is longing for you and me, in time, 
while we have the opportunity, just to tell him. His ear is bent 
down ; he is longing for you and me to say — 

"My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine, 
For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign ; 
My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou: 
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now." 

Go home, then, beloved, to your own room, and kneel down and 
say in this holy priesthood of thine, "Lord Jesus, I adore Thee, I 
love Thee; to Thee be the glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
Amen." 



THE HESITATING SOUL 

By Rev. David James Burrell, D.D., L.L.D. 

Text: "// y^ know these things, happy are ye if ye do them!' 
John 13 : 17. 

I speak to the man or woman who means to accept Christ some 
time, but wants to know more about the Gospel before doing so. 

Can this be offered as a valid reason for putting off the Great 
Decision? Let us see. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 339 

To begin with, there are some things that nobody knows. The 
germinative process of life is only one of ten thousand mysteries 
that laugh at the most resolute scrutiny of science. Of making 
many books — covering tlie little that we know — there is no end; 
but if the things that we do not know were to be published, the book- 
shelves of the world could not contain them. 

And there are many things which can never be found out. In 
my boyhood I once met Professor Morse, the inventor of the elec- 
tric telegraph, and asked him: "What is electricity?" I supposed 
that he would define it; but his answer was, "I don't know; and 
N -hat's more, I doubt if anybody will ever find out." Ten years 
ago I put the same question to Mr. Marconi, the inventor of wire- 
less telegraphy, and with precisely the same result. If this be so 
with respect to the simple problems that lie within the province of 
the physical senses, what should we naturally expect of the mys- 
teries that lie beyond, in the illimitable world of spiritual things ? 

But there are some things that we do know; which are like the 
axioms in mathematics; such as "two and two make four," and "a 
straight line is the shortest distance between two points.' These are 
called "self-evident facts," because they require no proving. A wise 
man who is really intent on the quest of knowledge will take rudi- 
mental truths for granted and, laying them down as postulates, move 
on to larger things. 

If this is the part of wisdom in the common affairs of life, how 
much more in the larger problems of religion, which have to do with 
our eternal destiny? So it is written, "Let us leave the principles of 
doctrine (that is, the simple elemental facts which are in the nature 
of intuitions) and go on unto perfection." (Heb. 6: 1.) 

It is my purpose now to point out some of these religious axioms, 
which are really held in common by all who live in Gospel light. 
Many who hesitate to accept Christ for want of further knowledge 
are really deceiving themselves and hiding in a mere subterfuge. 
They know enough to lead them to the Cross, were it not for the out- 
standing fact that the Cross itself is a stumbling-block in the way 
of spiritual and eternal life. 

I. The first axiom is God. You believe in a God, because you 
can't help it. Not that the existence of God is never denied. In 
the Corps Legislatif, during the Reign of Terror in France, it was 
solemnly resolved, "That there is no God," but presently, when the 
gutters of Paris were running red with blood, the legislators made 
all possible haste to rescind it. There are others who deny God by 
excluding him from their lives ; as it is written, "The fool hath said 
in his heart, There is no God." But there are few avowed atheists 
in these days ; and surely you are not among them. 

If you really want evidence in these premises you can find it in 
any of our Theological Seminaries, where professors will surfeit you 



340 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

with ontological and cosmological and telelogical arguments for the 
being of God ; but the average man — even the Zulu who bows down 
before a fetich in the jungle — takes this as a self-evident fact. 

II. The second axiom is Immortality. Jesus said, "How much 
better is a man than a sheep ?" By just this much, that God breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life and made him a living soul. A 
man is, therefore, as immortal as God is, because the life in him is 
a spark thrown off from the inextinguishable life of God. 

Of course there are people who deny this. They will tell you 
that "death ends all :" but they don't believe it. The wish is father 
of the thought. Go with i,ie along the Avenue until we come to a 
house bearing the sign "To Let." Suppose I say, "My friend, isn't 
it frightful that a whole family should be annihilated in that way ?' 
You would lift your eyebrows and reply, "What do you mean ? 'Ex- 
terminated?' Oh, no; they have simply moved out." Suppose we 
go on to the next house where there is crepe on the door. Let us 
enter and look at a face whereon death has left its pale impress. 
Will you tell me that the living man who has moved out of this 
tenement of flesh has ceased to be? Then I will answer that your 
logic is as fallacious and sophisticated as mine was when I intimated 
that the family next door was exterminated. The man whose name 
is on this casket was alive yesterday; and the presumption is al- 
ways in favor of the status quo. The tenant of the vacant house 
has simply moved out. If not, it devolves upon you to prove it. 
But immortality needs no argument. Ask yourself, "If a man die, 
will he live again ?" and instantly there is a voice within you calling 
back, "I shall live and not die !" 

III. The third of the axioms is Responsibility. I am a normal 
being: that is, made under law. You call it the moral law or the 
law of your being, as you will; in any case, we are under bonds to 
keep it. If this fact be questioned, listen to the voice of conscience 
"accusing or else excusing you." This is the monitor that enables 
us, as Plato said, "to discern betwixt the worse and better reason ;" 
and you cannot get away from it. 

This truth, however, is flatly denied by a certain class of senti- 
mental reformers who ask immunity for all manner of criminals on 
the ground that they "couldn't help it." A drunkard is a dipso- 
maniac and a thief is a kleptomaniac, and, "Poor fellows, they can't 
help it." But the thief and the drunkard know better. The judge on 
the bench would find his occupation gone if moral responsibility 
were so easily bowed out of doors. Our courts of justice, jails and 
reformatories would all be superfluous were it not for the com- 
mon sense which insists that those who do wrong must suffer 
for it. 

IV. The fourth axiom is Sin. There are only two kinds of people 
who deny personal sin. On the one hand, there are perfectionists in 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 341 

the church who profess to be living blameless lives ; but their most 
intimate friends give them little or no credit for it. ( See 1 John 1 : 
8-10. ) On the other hand, there are moralists outside the church, who 
insist that their lives are so far beyond criticism as to require no 
pardoning grace. 

It is difficult to believe that either perfectionists or moralists are 
sincere in their claims. For we need but to inquire within to hear 
the self-convicting voice. "The Lord looked down from heaven to 
see if there was any that wrought righteousness ; and behold, there 
is none that doeth good, no, not one." And if there were, neither 
you nor I, certainly, would claim to be that one. 

V. The fifth axiom is Salvation. This is affirmed as a self- 
evident fact, because we know that if there is a God anywhere in 
the universe — that is, a God with a heart — he could not see his 
children go wrong without making bare his arm to deliver them 
from the power and penalty of sin. 

One of the significant names of Christ is "the Arm of the Lord 
made bare." God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 
Son to suffer and die in our behalf. This you learned at your 
mother's knee: and — twist your intellectuals as you will — ^you can- 
not escape it. Nor do you really want to. 

The men and women to whom I speak believe in Christ at least 
as an historic fact. They have an intellectual apprehension of him 
as the Saviour, and more than that — as the only Saviour. They 
need not be reminded that in all the false religions and philosophies 
of the world there cannot be found a single hint or suggestion of 
any remedy for the universal, malignant, fatal malady of sin. They 
need no argument to show that the Gospel proposes to remove the 
handicap of life by blotting out the record of the mislived past; 
and that no other plan has ever been suggested for doing so. They 
stand beside Peter, who, when Christ asked, "Will ye also go away ?" 
replied, "Lord, to whom can we go but unto thee? Thou hast the 
words of eternal life." And yet — strange to say — they hesitate to 
accept him ! 

VI. The sixth axiom is Justification by Faith, which is expressed 
in the terms: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; 
and he that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him." This 
is denied by the Universalists. If any man be a "Universalist" I 
more. I believe in Universal Salvation just as I believe in Universal 
Suffrage. Every man in America has a right to the elective fran- 
chise, if he choose to accept it. But you can live next door to the 
polls all your life, and if you don't cast the ballot, you are no better 
for it. If you are an immigrant the franchise is yours for nothing; 
but on certain conditions. If you do not take out your naturaliza- 
tion papers, you will never be a citizen of the United States. 

The same holds true of Universal Salvation. It is written that 



342 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

"Christ tasted death for every man." This makes all men salvable ; 
so that whosoever will may take of the water of life freely. But 
he must take. God can make salvation free, but he cannot force it 
upon us. Ours is the inevitable and inalienable power of choice. 
The air is free, but we must breathe it. Sunlight is free, but we can 
shut our eyes against it. Water is free, but a man may stand, Hke 
Tantalus, in water up to his lips and die of thirst unless he drinks 
it. The grace of God which bringeth salvation is free, in like man- 
ner; but there is one condition fixed to its benefits, in the necessity 
of the case; namely, that we shall accept it. Faith is simply the 
appropriating hand stretched out. 

But just here is where many a man falls down. The Lord offers 
all the riches of eternal life for the taking, and men refuse to take it. 
Thus life goes by default. The prodigal in the far country knew 
all the while that his father's house was open to receive him ; but he 
would have lived and died in that far country, wasting his sub- 
stance and feeding swine, had not he come to himself in a fortunate 
moment, and said, "I will arise and go !" 

VII. There is a seventh axiom which must not be omitted, 
namely, "Procrastination is the thief of time." You mean to accept 
Christ some day. You would not for a moment admit that you in- 
tend to live and die without him. 

In a ministry of over forty years I have been summoned to many 
sick-chambers; and I have never seen a Christian pass on to the 
Great Beyond without a profound joy in the Gospel and a heart full 
of the peace that passeth all understanding ; nor have I ever seen a 
non-Christian die without grieving over the neglect of his many 
opportunities of accepting Christ. We all mean well; but we post- 
pone and again and again postpone the settlement of the most im- 
portant question that ever confronts us. 

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow; 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 
To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death." 

If you were going to take a train and, hearing the conductor call, 
"All aboard !" should stand on the platform reluctant and hesitating, 
you would get left and have none to blame but yourself for it. Just 
there is where you are standing now. 

Let me lay down this proposition : Not to decide is to decide not. 
How does that strike you? Not to decide for Christ is to decide 
against him. Do you still hesitate ? It is a true proverb, "The road 
By-and-by leads to the house Never." That which is right to be 
done, cannot rightly be put off. 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 343 

In each man's life there comes a time supreme. 
One day, one night, one morning or one noon, 
One freighted hour, one moment opportune, 

One rift through which subhme fulfilments gleam. 

One space when fate goes tiding with the stream, 
One Once, in balance 'twixt Too Late, Too Soon, 
And ready for the passing instant's boon 

To tip in favor the uncertain beam. 

Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait, 

Knows also how to watch, and work and stand 
On life's broad deck alert, and at the prow 

To seize the passing moment, big with fate, 
From Opportunity's extended hand. 
When the great clock of destiny strikes Now ! 

A soldier on sentry duty picked up a scrap of paper on which was 
printed the familiar hymn : "We're traveling home to heaven above ; 
will you go? Will you go?" He had long been thinking, hoping, 
hesitating, and now resolved to make an end of it. Under the hymn 
he wrote, "By the grace of God, I'll go. John Waugh, Company 
Y., U. S. Volunteers. June 26, 1863." And at the next meeting in 
the chaplain's tent he announced his acceptance of Christ. Does 
any one imagine for a moment that he ever regretted it? 



AWAKE! ARISE! 

By Rev. John McNeill, D.D. 

Text: ''Awake thou that steepest, and arise from the dead, and 
Christ shall give thee light." Eph. 5 : 14. 

"Awake thou that sleepest." We have this in substance and in 
different forms elsewhere, but in actual form here. Luther said, 
you remember, that certain texts were little Bibles. For instance, 
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." Well, that is a little Bible. And another one is like unto it : 
"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, 
let him open the door, and I will come in, and sup with him, and he 
with me." And I think this is one, too, at any rate, this is a text 
which is a little sermon : "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from 
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." That is an evangelistic 
text; it is an evangelistic address; it is put in the very form that 
conveys it to the people to whom you are talking. Now here is a 
text that is a sermon. You may forget what I say, but I want you 



344 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

to remember the text. I would put the trumpet to my lips and 
sound this text over and over again, "Awake thou that sleepest, 
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." 

There is the sinner described ; there is the sinner addressed ; there 
is the sinner pointed to the Saviour. What more would you have? 

I. "Awake thou that sleepest." See how the sinner is described 
here, and the backslider, for the backslider has just gone back again 
into sin, and has lost communion with his Saviour, and needs to be 
called back by the Word by which he was brought at first out of 
darkness into light. He needs to be recovered. See how our life 
away from Christ, the life of unbelief, the life of worldliness, the 
life of sin that you are living, is described here as a Hfe of sleep. 
Elsewhere the figure is changed, and it is described as death. The 
Bible often changes its figures. "Awake thou that sleepest." The 
man who is not converted, the soul here that is not walking in the 
light of Christ's grace, is asleep; you are like one who at twelve 
o'clock in the day is still soundly snoring on his bed. It is not a 
complimentary description, is it? The Bible never was complimen- 
tary to a sinner ; the Bible always speaks the plain, bare truth. That 
is why folks don't like the Bible, and don't like the preacher. If, 
my dear friends, you have big notions about yourself, and you think, 
oh, well, you may be a sinner, but you are a superior sort of a 
sinner, then you need not come to hear me, and^you need not attend 
any preacher of the Bible, for you will never get those big notions 
flattered, you will get them contradicted. "Awake thou that sleep- 
est." And I can imagine a man saying, "Oh, this is overdone, you 
know; we must draw the line at this." You say, "I have been 
here every night, McNeill, and one night you called me a leper, 
another night blind, and another night paralytic ; and now you have 
It that I am snoring; — these are surely rather hard speeches." But 
it is the Bible ; I stand on the Bible every time, and the Bible said it 
all to me first. I kicked against it just like my neighbors, but found 
it true, and I am not going to let you off. Not only does the Bible 
back me up, but my own experience does, and plenty of people also, 
who first of all were ruffled by God's Word and irritated; but bye- 
and-bye they found out that the Bible was a faithful friend. Be- 
cause the Bible loved them, it dared their rebuke and told them the 
truth. "Yes, yes," you say, "but I draw the line at that; I do not 
think I am asleep." You say to me, "If you only knew the people 
who know me, they would tell you that I am rather wide-awake ; I 
am not one of your sleepy chicks ; I am a wide-awake person." Well, 
I have not denied it ; I believe, in the affairs of this world, you are 
very wide-awake. A man would have to rise early to be up before 
you, and would have to sit up late to outwatch you. If there was 
anything to be got by it, you are on the night-shift to make overtime. 
I believe you are all agog ; you would turn night into day, and make 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 345 

Sunday into Saturday, if it got you something as regards this pres- 
ent world. Yet making that admission, that you are not stupid and 
you are not asleep, that you are keen in business and intellectual 
activity, a great reader, a great thinker, earnest in attendance at 
evening classes, and legitimately employing your time, still, man, if 
you are not converted, if you do not know Jesus Christ, where in the 
world have you been living for the last thirty years? You are a 
poor Rip Van Winkle ; I tell you to your face. You remember the 
story of the man who went to sleep, and when he awakened up the 
generations had meanwhile passed away. He came to the village 
and noticed how everything round him was mildewed and rusty, and 
nobody knew him. The only place where he felt familiar was in the 
graveyard, where the names of the headstones were the names of the 
people he had known before he fell on his sleep. Now every un- 
converted man will, after his awakening up, admit that he was 
sound asleep, and that the realities of life had never dawned upon 
him. Thus the text holds true : "Awake thou that sleepest." 

If you have not wakened up to a knowledge of sin, a painful 
knowledge of sin, as a plague and a disease that has fastened on 
your vitals which you cannot shake off ; if you have not wakened up 
to a knowledge of God, and of the judgment, of heaven and of hell, 
where are you but sleeping — soundly sleeping? The awful realities 
of existence are all round about you, but are unheard and unappre- 
ciated. Suffer my blunt speech. If you want to rouse a man, you 
have got to rouse him; you will never rouse a heavy sleeper, like 
some of you, by standing up and washing your hands in invisible 
soap and water, and whispering polite nothings. You will never 
arouse me, and I am not an extraordinary sleeper; though I can do 
a good sleep — ^you will never arouse me by coming to my bedside to- 
morrow morning, and by whispering scarcely above your breath, by 
putting on your sweetest manner and saying, "Sir, Sir, I would not 
disturb you for the world, but it is nearly twelve o'clock." I will 
stand that, or rather I will lie that; I will keep sound and stiflf. If 
you want to be my friend, you had better come, especially if there is 
anything worth wakening me for, and grip me, shake me, and tell 
me there is a letter come giving me a fortune, or tell me that the 
house is on fire, and I will show you a jump. Make it worth my 
while to waken, and I will wake. Well, it is the same thing with the 
preacher. I am not here to say hard things about your natural 
condition simply for the sake of saying them, or simply to show 
that I have the best of the argument according to the Bible, or that I 
have the whip by the handle and will make you feel the supple end 
of it. It is not for that ; it is not to turn the contention against you, 
and to pain you, and to flatten you, that I may crow over you. I 
am speaking in the rousing way I am doing because I am right. But 
more than that: because it is high time you were out of sleep; and 



346 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

if you are only wakened up, you will admit all I am saying. I will 
go bail for it, that you come to me to-morrow night, if you take 
Christ to-night, and you would say, "Preacher, you were right; my 
past unconverted life was just as good as a sleep, a dream — unreal." 

The day I awoke from indifference and formality, the sounds of 
eternity came rushing like a cold, sharp east wind into my ears. I 
remember the day I woke; and the next day when I got the light. 
I remember those two days. Now "Awake thou that sleepest." 
Wake up; believe these things; sit back and listen. Say to your- 
selves, "Well, well, it is true at any rate." Say to yourselves, "I 
would need to contradict the Bible, and a multitude of honest people, 
to make myself right and them wrong." You can't do it. Say to 
yourself, "Suppose it is true, what then ?" Well, then, the next thing 
is wake up, get up, listen, be interested, be concerned. You can be 
interested, you can be concerned. 

II. The sinner addressed. 

Let me come to you and be the means of wakening you to concern 
about conversion, about your own personal interest in Christ, to 
personal concern about the things which await you in eternity, which 
is always coming nearer. Believe in eternity, believe in God, believe 
in Christ ; take the Bible view of things in regard to yourself and in 
regard to sin, and the Saviour, and eternity, and the blessings which 
come through faith in him. "Awake thou that sleepest;" to reality, 
to consciousness, to some dim understanding, at least, of existence, 
as represented by the eternal Word of the eternal God. "Awake 
thou that sleepest," and thank God that the message is so plain — a 
trumpet call, something rolling, resounding, and no mistake about it. 
It is no world for sleeping in, this. Ah ! my careless friend, or my 
busy friend, busy or careless with the things of time, but asleep as 
to the things of eternity, this is no world for sleeping in. There may 
be circumstances where sleep is appropriate, but that sleep of your 
soul is awfully inappropriate just now. When you know Christ, and 
have come to Christ, lie down in him and take a grand sleep ; and as 
to all your affairs and all your interest, let them go to sleep. When 
you have come to Christ, rest in him all your length, all your weight, 
all your destiny. Rest in him as a tired laboring man rests at the 
close of a long journey, or after an exhausting day's work. Sweet 
is the sleep of the resting soul. 

But oh, outside of Christ, how dare you sleep? — outside of Christ, 
how dare you rest ? It is no world for sleeping in, poor sinner. Do 
you know where I once caught a man sleeping? I once caught a 
man lying asleep — a drunken sleep — between the four-foot, as it is 
called, of the railway, and the midnight express coming thundering 
down the bank. Such is thy state, O unconverted soul. Thou art 
asleep between the rails, and God's judgment express is coming 
down, and is almost on top of you. I say again, it is no world for 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 347 

a sinner to go to sleep in. And as that express sounds forth its 
signals and sends news in advance of it, so God, who is coming to 
judge the world in mercy, is sending a sound before him. Awake 
and listen, and you will hear the far-off sound of that judgment 
which is coming. Get upon your feet, and get into the six-foot. 
Even that will not save you. Get out from between the rails alto- 
gether; get out, shift your body, get yourself clear. I wakened that 
man, didn't I? How could I pass him? And didn't I wake him 
rather roughly? Would I have been a fool if I had sat down and 
said polite things to him ? Was I not his best friend when I gripped 
him and held him, and, half asleep and half awake, got him into 
safety? And am I not your friend to stand in the face of you to- 
night and tell you the truth? Oh, man, awake. "Awake thou that 
sleepest, and arise from the dead." 

First of all, awake thou that sleepest. But then in this wonder- 
ful little text of mine there is another trumpet blast — two trumpet 
calls in one text : not many texts like that ! "Awake thou that sleep- 
est, and" — and what? "And arise from the dead." What does that 
mean? Oh, I think there is a beautiful sequence in these two trum- 
pet calls, in these two evangelical cries out from the preacher's heart, 
and out from God's heart, and out from the Holy Ghost's heart. 
First of all "awake"; that's the first thing. Then the second thing 
is, of course, "get up, arise from the dead," for every man who 
awakens is not a man who is up, is he ? Oh, no, no, no ! We are 
illustrating this every morning. Some of us make a big difference 
between awakening and getting up. It is not so hard to awaken 
some of you, but oh, it is a job to get you over on to your feet! 
You will awaken, and you will get on your elbow, and you will 
crack away with anybody for an hour like a pop-gun ; you will talk 
and talk, and drink a cup of coffee in your bed — oh, how you like it ! 
— ^yes, anything to postpone the actual having to get up, and put on 
your clothes, and go back again to the old treadmill of the world's 
work. And if it were not for the spur that you have to go, some of 
you don't know when you would go. Oh, some of us don't know 
how lazy we can be, for we have never been tried. If you had been 
the eldest son of a duke, you might have been just as much a lie-a- 
bed and a trifler as those swells whom you always denounce, that 
don't need to get up in the morning. Well, maybe, you are more like 
them than you think. You don't need to get up every Sunday 
morning. Are you over-smart then? No, verily. 

We will not go much farther on that line, but allow me to insist 
on this : it is one thing to be wakened up, and another thing to get 
up. How many things come in between these! And, spiritually, 
how true that is! I believe it has been illustrated every night at 
these meetings, and will be illustrated at every evangelical meeting 
in this city. If we are preaching the Word of God, we will have 



348 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

people interested, and they will sit back and say, "That is true, that 
is straight, this is plain ; now that's the kind of preaching that doesn't 
fly over a fellow's head." You admit that this is true, you are 
awakened ; but alas, alas ! that's all. You don't rise, you don't get 
up, you don't come to Christ. You sit there and talk back ; you are 
only awake. You know there is one thing which keeps people from 
getting up ; sometimes it keeps me. I awake sometimes, I don't 
know whether it is the same with you? I take these homely illus- 
trations that cause a smile because they are true. And I hope there 
is a smile on your heart of intelligent appreciation. Now, I have 
wakened and not got up ; this was the fatal thing : I fell over again, 
and dreamed that I was up. Haven't you don't that? I dreamed 
that I was up and dressed, and then afterwards woke with a start 
and an awful disappointment, to find that it was all to do yet. I'm 
afraid there are a lot of people that way in religion. They only 
think. 

Now, my friends — I speak with all tender and affectionate solici- 
tude — I stand in doubt of you ; if I could but get nearer to you, to 
look into the very eyes of your soul, and to shake you, and say, 
*'Now, John, you're not up yet, you are still lying on the bed of 
self-pleasing and worldliness and indulgence ; your tongue is awake, 
but you are talking in your sleep, you are not up yet, you are not in 
the daylight of eternity yet — no, not yet — but you may be this min- 
ute while I speak. Come, wake, man; arise, take the step forward 
and outward away from sleep, away from your past, away from 
every consideration that would keep you down, and step out and 
get clear of the bed, and be able to say, "I am up, bless God, I'm up, 
I know that I'm up, and I know that I have left my bed by the very 
shivers that are going through me in the cold." Ah, yes ! you will 
hear a great many people talking about the joy of conversion. Well, 
that's true; but there is often before the joy, a wee while, as they 
say in Scotland, a little time of a kind of mortal shivering, when a 
man wakens up to the realities before him. Ah! it is cold, it is an 
unfamiliar state, and you are awfully prone to go back, saying, "I'll 
take another forty winks." Now, don't; oh, don't! it's an awful 
thing. You'll go back, and you will oversleep yourself almost as 
sure as sure can be. You will; you know it in the affairs of this 
world. You have got to distrust yourself there. You know that if 
you turn over after waking and take another forty winks in the 
morning you are too late, and you go shivering and shambling and 
ashamed to the gate of your workshop — late, and the foreman meets 
you and says, "Look here, if you can't come in the morning when 
the men's work begins, you can stay away all day; we don't need 
you." I have known men to whom that has happened, and it cured 
them of their heavy-headedness and their trifling. And, oh, my 
friend, I know that while I am speaking concerning the bed on 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 349 

which you are lying, the devil is making it appear to you never so 
easy, soft, and delicious as now that I want you to arise. 

The life of unbelief and worldliness, and of taking the day as it 
comes — the devil is whispering how sweet it is, how pleasant ! But 
to come to Christ is to come under obligations; he is telling you 
that to come to Christ is to come to a new Master who is hard, and 
whom there is no pleasing ; and as to wages, nobody ever saw them. 
The devil says, "You know I pay you cash down." He is a liar; 
he does not. But he will dare to say it all the same. "I make my 
service one of ready money; I give you pleasure and all that you 
want right off." "No, you don't ; you tickle and trick and cheat us 
to our very faces." No, no, no ! come away to Christ ; don't yield to 
the whispering seductions of the devil and the flesh. "Awake, arise 
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Spring to your feet 
like a man ; it is high time — it is almost past time. "What meanest 
thou, O sleeper? Arise and call upon thy God." 

And, then, to help you to arise, do you notice what the text says ? 
"Arise from the dead." Oh, what does that mean and what is that 
intended for? Well that is the counter-blast to those seductions 
that are trying to grip you in their soft embraces while I am trying 
to arouse you. There is the truth, too, to describe what is round 
about you and the state you are in. Who would sleep in a grave- 
yard? Who would live among bones and decay? And that is 
where you are living, unconverted sinner. "Arise from the dead." 
That is to help you to make a jump; for you will be like them if 
you stay with them much longer, utterly dead, no more impressed 
at all with the rousing call of the Gospel; and the very Spirit of 
God himself may say at last, "Sleep on, sleep on. Ephraim is joined 
to his idols, let him alone." "You have made your bed, now lie 
upon it." That hour, that awful moment may come ; for God's sake 
and thine own, be wise this minute; there is a time when God's 
Spirit ceases to strive with men who say, "A little more sleep, and a 
little more slumber, and a little more folding of the hands." If you 
love it, sleep on. 

"There is a time, I know not when, 
A point, I know not where. 
That marks the destiny of men 
For glory or despair." 

"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." Don't live 
among the dying and the dead and the rotting. Live! Oh, come, 
arise ! 

in. What next? See the beautiful sequence of the text: first 
of all to awaken you, then to get you up, and then "Christ shall give 
thee light." It is just as though I came in in the morning when all 



350 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA 

is dark; I waken you and shake you, for two things compel me: I 
have a great offer to make to you, and I have an awful danger to 
warn you from. That is why I am so urgent, and that is why I 
am shaking you by the shoulder. A great offer for you, "Christ 
shall give thee light;" and the great danger to warn you from, the 
awful death, the awful danger of passing away in your sleep, as we 
read of people doing every day in the newspapers, passing away in 
their sleep. God save us! There may be numbers of people who 
spiritually pass away in their sleep, and have never awoke. They 
never gave to minister or missionary one single solitary sign that 
ever they awoke to the realities of sin and salvation — never one. 
They passed away in their sleep; they died as they lived! Now, 
"Christ shall give thee light." It is like this. When a man wakens 
under the preaching of the Gospel to the eternal verities of God's 
Word and truth, and springs up into activity, he usually finds that 
he wakens up to darkness and perplexity, and often in more or less 
of alarm, with fright upon his spirit. "Oh, oh ! What is it ? Where 
am I now?" Why, the other night in Oakley Square I woke after 
midnight, and I heard pouring through the Square the rush of feet 
and the sound of voices. I sprang out of bed and went to the 
window, and there, just outside of the window, I saw the whole 
sky blazing with the reflected flame of a great fire, and people rush- 
ing from all parts — for there are Londoners who never seem to go 
to bed. Let a fire blaze up at any time, and you will have a crowd 
of dressed men and women pouring to that sight. Well, ofttimes 
when a sinner first awakes, he awakes with the red, lurid glare com- 
ing in at his window; he awakens up — to put it in Old Testament 
fashion — with Sinai gleaming in upon his soul. That sight, "that 
blackness and darkness, and voice of the trumpet, and sound of 
words," that lightning and thunder, and there is no peace and no 
rest. A man is not comfortable when he wakens; he wakens with 
his face to Sinai, and there sweep through his soul these considera- 
tions : "God is holy, God is my Lawgiver ; I have broken his laws. 
I was made by him, and am accountable to him, and my life has 
been a transgression, a trampling under foot of his commands, and 
of his grace and mercy." And nothing about him seems to give 
peace. It is like the glare of the midnight fire. If I waken up and 
discover that there is a fire, and that the fire is not in the next street, 
that it is not in the next house, but that it has fastened upon my own 
house, it keeps me from going back to bed and to sleep. I begin to 
make shift, to get out of the house; I am glad to hear then about 
escapes, fire-engines, and ladders, and all that kind of thing. So 
when a sinner wakens up to know God, and the holiness of God, and 
the law, with its curse, to the thought of meeting with God, his 
peace vanishes as a dream when one waketh. He is awakened, and 
he is up, and now what is he to do? Now, mj^ friend, if you are 



TEN GREAT REVIVAL SERMONS 351 

awakened, I don't say that you are to put yourself in a state of 
terror. Every one is not alarmed by a fire. Some, when a fire is in 
their house are wonderfully cool, others are wonderfully excited; 
but all are making their way out. Now, whether cool or not, you 
are wanting peace, you are wanting rest, you are wanting salvation. 
You have wakened up to know that there is nothing around you but 
condemnation and destruction. Steady your nerve a minute, it is a 
critical state; you may take a wrong step now; and as you have 
obeyed the rest of the text, will you obey this : "Christ shall give 
thee light" ? Stand just where you are now, don't take a step, wait 
a minute, wait for the firemen. The escape is already reared against 
the window, and the brave fellows are coming up; don't rush in a 
panic, don't go helter-skelter here and there, for there is blinding 
smoke, and there is confusion, with the possibility of your taking a 
wrong turning and doing something in a panic that you may never 
undo. Wait. Whenever a soul is awakened and aroused, then the 
Bible, that has been talking in thunder tones to you all along, sud- 
denly changes and brings in a new word, a new name that I never 
mentioned before, "Christ shall give thee light." 

First of all, you are sleeping in the midst of your danger and dis- 
tress; then, when you are awakened to it all, "Christ shall give thee 
light." Do you ask, "Where is he ?" He is beside you, he has come 
in ; he is the brave fireman ; he has come into your burning building, 
and has wanted to fill his arms with you. Will you let him? It is 
like this. In Edinburgh, one night a fire broke out — a raging, de- 
stroying, desolating fire. Some friends of mine lived in one of the 
"flats," as they are called. The people heard the noise, they heard 
the crackling, they heard the shouts, and they awakened the sleepers. 
They arose, though, alas, alas ! they afterwards went wrong. They 
arose, they gathered themselves together, they came downstairs till 
they came to the passage, the entry, the "close," as they call it there, 
that leads out into the street. They were almost safe, but in that 
entry leading to the street they were met by a blinding rush of smoke, 
and, in the terror and alarm of the moment, instead of going straight 
out through the smoke, they turned into a door that was standing 
deceitfully open, a door into a chamber, and before they could re- 
cover from their mistake they were suffocated ; they perished in the 
smoke. 

What would have saved my friends? This, if in that moment of 
panic and terror and confusion, by fire on the one hand and smoke 
on the other, and danger all round about, if there could have pierced 
through the blinding smoke, only one clear ray of God's daylight 
from the outside, it would have met their eyes, it would have guided 
them out into the street, and to safety and peace. For want of 
light, they perished in the smoke and darkness. So need perish 
none who come to Christ. What my friends did not get, and for 



352 THE EVANGELISTIC CYCLOPEDIA / 

lack of which they were lost, is what you do get when you come to 
Christ. He is thy Light. Oh, awaken ! Oh, trembling, oh, anxious 
soul, look to Jesus! and the more you turn away your eyes from 
Sinai to another hill, the moment you turn your eyes to Calvary, 
you will get peace. Look to him, the Light on the cross. He is 
the Light that calms my fears, that delivers me from all my guilt and 
condemnation. Christ shall give thee light, light, light! Light to 
see by, light to walk by, light for all your path along the road ; and 
light, you know, means everything here. Darkness means all that 
is fearful and gloomy and paralyzing; light means everything that 
is helpful and hopeful, and liberating and enriching. Come to 
Christ, and he shall give thee light; oh, come, trust him; that is to 
say, let in the light of peace and pardon that streams from the cruci- 
fied and gloried Saviour. Let him shine on you, and let him shine in 
you. Faith in him is the opening of the eyes to let in the saving 
light — the calming, the cheering, the guiding light. *'I heard," says 
Dr. Horatius Bonar, the sweet singer of Israel, 

"1 heard the voice of Jesus say, 

'I am this dark world's light; 
Look unto me, thy morn shall rise 

And all thy day be bright.' 
I looked to Jesus, and I found 

In him my star, my sun. 
And in that light of life I'll walk 

Till travelling days are done." Amen. 



THE END 



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